Actually, I believe he was a mix of both. He
was rightly characterized as sweet-tempered and modest. He coild have stayed away from Jane to avoid putting her in a positon where she felt she had to say yes to a man because a marriage was what her mother wanted. However, he was also wishy-washy. Bingley did not have a strong enough conviction to return to Jane to determine for himself if, at best, she really did love him and at worst, that she liked him enough to
fall in love with him. Perhaps, if he knew her better he could have judged better.
Austen didn't characterize Bingley's actions as reprehensible, but neither did she must have felt them significant enough to have Darcy to apologize and for Bingley to be angry (albeit briefly) about Darcy's manipulation--or was he angry about the concealment of Jane's presence than he was about Darcy's incorrect interpretation of Jane's feelings?
