For every Willoughby...

.....there's an Edward Ferrar, a Colonel Brandon, a Mr Knightly etc. Those perspectives are a little far apart. As far apart in fact as J.A's heroines and her Fanny Dahwoods. There's also a section of maledom that's neither. An ordinary man who might not go around seducing attractive women but won't cover his eyes when one passes. Jane Austen almost let Bingley drop his perfect persona when he declared Jane Bennet to be "a beautiful angel", and Darcy declared his friend had fallen in love many times in the past. This is why it's so strange that Bingley just tamely acccepted a fictional rejection related by another rather than just riding back the fifty miles of good road in half-a-day, marching up to Longbourne's front door and saying "I've come to take up your kind offer of dinner" to the ever hopeful Mrs Bennet. The queen bee of matchmakers would have made sure that things progressed in the right direction. Of course, Bingley might not wish to incur Darcy's disapproval by daring to suggest such a thing...... but he should have done. He may have been unsure, even feared rejection, but he needed to see for himself. For that, I'm not prepared to excuse him.

I'd like to think that if asked about those missing eight months and what Bingley did, Jane Austen might have just smiled and said " Make of that what you will"....(-: