So we would find Jim in the periphery of Lord Byron's set, the bookish-artsy folks frequenting the literary salons and the museums, taking road trips to the Ashmolean in Oxfordshire, or ports like Bristol to sketch boats
en plein air before modeling them. Or taking lectures on industry like ship building and historic naval engagements, then shopping for materials for your model craft. Add instruction from masters on dance and painting, and you could be quite busy for months without the awkwardness of new women in your life while your heart mended and your conscience eventually demanded you seek a resolution.
But if you were Bingley, you would also conform to these descriptions:
Quote
"He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely agreeable"
"...he wore a blue coat, and rode a black horse."
"Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners."
"Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room; he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield."
(Bingley, to Darcy)" "I must have you dance. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better dance."
"I would not be so fastidious as you are," cried Mr. Bingley, "for a kingdom!"
"Mr. Bingley followed his advice." (Walking off after Darcy rejects his plea to dance)
"...it was doubtful to many of those who best knew the easiness of his temper, ..."
"Mr. Bingley had not been of age two years, when he was tempted by an accidental recommendation to look at Netherfield House. He did look at it, and into it for half-an-hour—was pleased with the situation and the principal rooms, satisfied with what the owner said in its praise, and took it immediately."
"Between him and Darcy there was a very steady friendship, in spite of great opposition of character. Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the easiness, openness, and ductility of his temper, though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied."
"In understanding, Darcy was the superior. Bingley was by no means deficient, ..."
"Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared,..."
"... everybody had been most kind and attentive to him; there had been no formality, no stiffness; he had soon felt acquainted with all the room;..."
"It is amazing to me," said Bingley, "how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are."
"Whatever I do is done in a hurry," replied he; "and therefore if I should resolve to quit Netherfield, I should probably be off in five minutes."
"When I am in the country," he replied, "I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is pretty much the same. They have each their advantages, and I can be equally happy in either."
"Mr. Bingley was unaffectedly civil in his answer, and forced his younger sister to be civil also, and say what the occasion required."
"Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet,..."
"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."
"My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them—by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents."
(Darcy to Bingley) ""I dare say you believed it; but I am by no means convinced that you would be gone with such celerity. Your conduct would be quite as dependent on chance as that of any man I know; and if, as you were mounting your horse, a friend were to say, 'Bingley, you had better stay till next week,' you would probably do it, you would probably not go—and at another word, might stay a month."
(Darcy)"I see your design, Bingley," said his friend. "You dislike an argument, and want to silence this."
"Perhaps I do. Arguments are too much like disputes. ..."
"She was resolved against any sort of conversation with him, and turned away with a degree of ill-humour which she could not wholly surmount even in speaking to Mr. Bingley, whose blind partiality provoked her."
"Bingley was all grateful pleasure, and he readily engaged for taking the earliest opportunity of waiting on her, after his return from London, whither he was obliged to go the next day for a short time."
(Darcy to Elizabeth) "But Bingley has great natural modesty, with a stronger dependence on my judgement than on his own."
Charles is extremely social, and modest (suggesting a youthful distrust of his own abilities). He is easy to please, can be persuaded readily to switch entertainments though at times he may appear to suffer from attention deficit.
He is not a reader, or he would have had plans to fill Netherfield's library already. He hasn't the patience to take up a hobby requiring confinement indoors, as women of accomplishment might.
He plays cards; he bird-hunts; he rides. He dislikes arguments and disputes. We could expect Charles to keep busy with an extremely wide-range of harmonious social activities, especially if they require action.
But above all else, Charles is ductility defined in Darcy's hands, and
yang to his friend's
yin.
What else did Charles Bingley do, then, for eight months?
Anything Darcy asked, and then whatever might keep Darcy from being an obstreperous butthead on a Sunday evening.
I picture these two being something like the original Odd Couple, with Darcy being a less-chatty Felix and Charles being a friendlier Oscar. Eight months could pass easily in each other's company. It's no wonder Darcy was so twitchy about disclosing the truth to Charles about Jane's feelings and her stay in London. Charles' righteous anger could have put an abrupt end to a singularly close friendship, the loss of which might have been more traumatic for them than losing any woman's affections.
