“How differently I imagined our return to England!” began Elizabeth to Georgiana, sitting in their rooms on the first night that found them again in Geneva. “I had anticipated our triumphant approach into Dover in joyous company, our entire party (including Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam), following our planned peregrinations up through Innsbruck. We will miss Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, the Rhine, Strassbourg, Luxemborg, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges—even the names sound elegant!—and, of course, the happiest prospect of our jolly arrival back at Pemberley. I expected the Hallendales, Bingleys, and all of the little Bingleys would be at Derbyshire, ready to receive us home from our Grand Tour. How altered is my vision now!” Elizabeth tried in vain to interest Georgiana in lamenting their roads not travelled, but could get on no further than an abstracted “Oh, yes. It is so very sad.” It was thoroughly unaccountable; Georgiana had an avidity for geographical subjects for as long as Elizabeth had known her. Now, it was as though she had no idea of any place beyond their sitting-room in an hôtel!

Georgiana, whose imagination had like-wise furnished her expectations with a markedly contrary scene of the conclusion of their travels, remained unintentionally silent. Her dismay at the turn of events, resulting in unimaginable heartache for her aunt and uncle, must see her returned to the frequent—daily—company of Colonel Fitzwilliam. How could she ever have foreseen that his presence would be the cause of such misery! She believed he must surely by now have come to an understanding with Miss Crawford, as only an event of such import could have been the reason for the Colonel’s prolonged stay at Tunbridge Wells; surely if he were already married, he must have mentioned it in his letter. The very idea weighed like a great stone upon her; it formed the thinking of every minute of every hour. Elizabeth’s frequent regrets that the Colonel had been prevented from joining their party were a sustained trial, and Georgiana’s attempts to steer the conversation away from the circumstances in London were bound to failure, as being both the cause of Elizabeth’s separation from her husband, and the motive for their altered and comfortless journey home.