Chapter 53: Much Ado About Bingley (Reprise)
With the Lydia/Wickham affair fully behind us now, big important news makes its way to the Bennet household. That news being: Mr. Bingley is moving back into town.
As was the case in Chapter 1, this is all anybody can talk about for days. Jane and Mrs. Bennet both act like "whatever, he can do what he wants, I'm over him," but like, you know they're wigging out on the inside.
Long story short, before they have a chance to invite Mr Bingley over, he actually shows up at the Bennets' house completely unannounced and with Mr. Darcy in tow. Despite the promise of this intriguing set-up, Austen absolutely flubs it; the only characters that we hear talk during this meeting are Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bingley.
Which, actually, that's not entirely true, either. Mrs. Bennet is the only character with dialogue in this part, as we hear her fall into the old habit of being a huge suck-up to Mr. Bingley; we're told how he responds, but not what he says. Now, we are also informed of a short conversation that takes place between Jane and Mr. Bingley, but we don't have a clear indication of how it goes aside from "he might still be into her but we didn't give these characters enough time together to achieve anything meaningful."
Mr. Darcy, meanwhile, presumably says nothing the whole time, nor can Elizabeth bring herself to look at him, so any potential drama between them is effectively wasted. Nothing clicks, and we wind up with yet another chapter that's mostly just wheels spinning. Sure have had a lot of these lately.