making the sisters' acquaintances whenMr. Bingley rides up. Mr. Bingley had been on his way to Longbourn to ask about Jane Bennet's health, and his friend Mr. Darcy is riding with him.

When Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham see one another, "Both changed colour, one looked white, the other red." After a few moments' hesitation, Mr. Wickham respectfully touches his hat, acknowledging Mr. Darcy, but this was a "salutation which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return." This interaction seems to confirm the pride with which Mr. Darcy has already been charged and the haughtiness of which he has already been accused by everyone in the vicinity of the town. For the narrator to say that he only "just deigned" to return Mr. Wickham's greeting suggests that he condescended to do so, that he feels a sense of his own superiority, and that he only stoops to return the salutation, perhaps, out of a sense of propriety and social obligation rather than any desire to actually acknowledge the man.