P&P 10

The controversy surrounding Lydia and Wickham is the culminating event where Darcy and Elizabeth come together and develop closeness between each other. Both ELizabeth and Darcy blame themselves for Lydia's eloping. Darcy wishes that he revealed Wickham earlier and Elizabeth wishes the same. The meeting almost seems strange to Elizabeth, as Darcy has never been so close to her before:

As [Darcy] quitted the room, Elizabeth felt how improbable it was that they should ever see each other again on such terms of cordiality as had marked their several meetings in Derbyshire; and as she threw a retrospective glance over the whole of their acquaintance, so full of contradictions and varieties, sighed at the perverseness of those feelings which would now have promoted its continuance, and would formerly have rejoiced in its termination (233)

The second half of the book starkly contrasts the first half where Darcy and Elizabeth's relations are toxic and poor. Not until Darcy reveals his proper character and the poor from of Wickham, does Elizabeth begin to see a possible relationship.