Zamindars, the victims of brigands in the popular perception, were equally complicit, profiting indirectly from brigandry while their employees, gomostas and lethels, changed the spots of virtue and vice to their advantage.  What does the expression "changed the spots of the virtue and vice" mean here????

No one would believe it," said Mrs. Packletide, her face changing colour as rapidly as though it were going through a book of patterns before post-time. What does "going through a book of patterns before post-time" mean here????

What's the meaning of this paragraph? Her energetic intervention had saved many a rouble from dissipating itself in tips in some Moscow hotel, and francs and centimes clung to her instinctively under circumstances which would have driven them headlong from less sympathetic hands.

I'm not being able to understand this sentence. I want to know what 'festival fare' means here. Can anyone write this sentence in easy language, please?

I'm not being able to understand the following passage. Can anyone help me understand that. The passage is from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She had been watching him the last hour, she said, as he walked up and down the street, and had Mr. Wickham appeared, Kitty and Lydia would certainly have continued the occupation, but unluckily no one passed windows now except a few of the officers, who, in comparison with the stranger, were become "stupid, disagreeable fellows."

I'm not being able to understand this passage. Please explain it. This passage is from Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen.

What does 'along the length of' mean here?

What does 'could but ill supply the deficiency of his' mean here in this context?