P&P The Untold Stories: Charlotte Lucas at the Meryton Assembly

Charlotte’s Evening at the Assembly

October 16, 1811

Not so many years ago, Charlotte had hated attending assemblies. Now they were among her chief pleasures, as she enjoyed the music and the opportunity to visit with her friends, but when she had been younger, she had been agonizingly aware that she might as well have been invisible to the young gentlemen in attendance. Their eyes would always slide past her to the prettier girls, and while any of them would have described her as a good sort, she had rarely been sought out as a partner.

As her pretty friends became wives one after another, Charlotte grew somewhat resigned to her lot. She had always wished to marry and have her own establishment, but spinsterhood was not so bad, after all, not when she had three brothers who would support her after her father passed away. She was grateful not to be in the precarious position of her particular friend Elizabeth Bennet; without any brothers, Elizabeth would eventually face a life of genteel poverty if she did not marry, and although Elizabeth possessed the beauty Charlotte herself lacked, her liveliness tended to frighten off potential suitors.

This particular assembly had begun auspiciously. Mr. Bingley, their charming and wealthy new neighbor, had asked her for the first set of dances, and proved to be an excellent dancer. Charlotte was sensible enough to take pleasure in the act of dancing rather than to waste her time dreaming of anything more, knowing that a gentleman of Mr. Bingley’s caliber would have no real interest in her. True to form, early in the first dance Mr. Bingley spotted the lovely Jane Bennet. He was apparently quite struck by her, immediately asking Charlotte who she was and angling transparently for an introduction. It would make a fine story for her to tell Lizzy later on.

It was no surprise when Mr. Bingley asked Jane Bennet to dance the next set with him, while Charlotte, as usual, was without a partner. Her father took the opportunity to introduce her to Mr. Robinson, a gentleman of about her own years who was paying an extended visit to their nearest neighbor, Mr. Willoughby.  She had seen him on several previous occasions, but he had never paid her the slightest bit of attention. Now Sir William’s maneuverings practically obliged Mr. Robinson to ask her for the next set.  The poor man; she was sure he wanted to do nothing of the sort.  Her father’s well-meaning but pointless attempts to find her a husband had put many an innocent young man in an embarrassing position, but Mr. Robinson proved to be not only amiable, but seemed to find her company diverting, asking her about her interests. If she had been anyone else, she would have thought he was actually flirting with her, but no one ever flirted with Charlotte, so that was impossible.  Still, it was a delightful half hour.

Afterwards Mr. Robinson returned her to Sir William who was in conversation with Mr. Bingley. Although reluctant to lose Mr. Robinson’s company, Charlotte decided to slip away before her father tried to embarrass Mr. Bingley into dancing with her again.  She was only a few paces away when she heard Mr. Robinson ask, “So, Mr. Bingley, how do you like the assembly?”

“I like it very well indeed!” said Mr. Bingley stoutly.

“Are we not fortunate to have so many pretty women in the room?  Which do you think to be the prettiest?”

“Oh! The eldest Miss Bennet beyond a doubt, there cannot be two opinions on that point,” replied Mr. Bingley immediately and with great enthusiasm.

This intelligence gave Charlotte an excellent reason to seek out Lizzy Bennet, to whom she repeated the story.

Elizabeth agreed heartily. “Mr. Bingley must be half in love with her already. I heard him tell that dreadful Mr. Darcy that she was the most beautiful creature he had ever beheld. Then he encouraged Mr. Darcy to ask me to dance, even though he had been refusing to acknowledge the existence of any ladies besides those of his own party. Fortunately for me, Mr. Darcy announced that I was tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him.” She laughed. “As if I would ever want to tempt such a proud and unpleasant man! It would be a punishment to have to dance with him.”

“It is fortunate Mr. Bingley did not try to make him dance with me, then, since if you are only tolerable, I hate to think of how Mr. Darcy would describe me!” said Charlotte.

Elizabeth said, “I think you may have made a different conquest. Mr. Robinson seems unable to take his eyes off of you.”

Charlotte laughed at Elizabeth’s foolishness. “If he is looking this way, it is you he must be looking at.” She glanced over her shoulder only to discover her friend had been correct. As Mr. Robinson’s eyes met hers, he gave a slow smile that made her feel a little odd inside.

She smiled back, which he seemed to take to be enough an invitation to join them. As he spoke to her warmly, Charlotte found herself blushing, something she had thought to have left behind her years ago.  Then, instead of asking Elizabeth to dance as Charlotte had expected, Mr. Robinson said, “Miss Lucas, would you permit me—or do I ask too much—to request the honor of the next set with you?”

Charlotte could not remember ever having been asked to dance twice by the same man at an assembly, but she managed to keep a calm demeanor as she accepted, ignoring Elizabeth’s amused glance.

After another enjoyable set, Mr. Robinson, noting that she was slightly out of breath, offered to bring her some lemonade.  Charlotte acquiesced, enjoying the novelty of having a gentleman fetch her refreshments. Jane Bennet always had a cluster of admirers eager to serve her, but Charlotte, like Elizabeth, was usually left to her own devices.

Mr. Robinson returned carrying two glasses of lemonade.  Charlotte revised her opinion of him upward; the men of Meryton were all drinking something much stronger. She made room for him to sit on the bench beside her.  He sat closer to her than she expected, enough so that she once again found herself blushing under his scrutiny. She was grateful that the crowd around them hid her from general view; she did not wish to be subject to the inevitable teasing merely because a man had danced with her twice.

She struggled to find a subject of conversation to distract herself from improper thoughts.  “How did you come to meet Mr. Willoughby?” she asked.

“Willoughby?  Oh, we were acquainted at Cambridge, but then I lost track of him until last year when we met again in London. A capital fellow, Willoughby.”

“Indeed,” Charlotte said non-committally. She wondered how well Mr. Robinson actually knew Mr. Willoughby, who was considered to be quite a rake.  He had cut a swath through the local female population, even turning his eye on Charlotte at one point.  Fortunately, she had been too sensible to fall for Willoughby’s wiles; she knew he only wanted one thing from her.  It surprised her that such a respectable man as Mr. Robinson would be his friend, but perhaps there was more to the story than she knew.

“I cannot tell you how grateful I am for your company, Miss Lucas. I feel quite a stranger here,” Mr. Robinson said.  “I had not hoped to discover a lady who was so easy to talk to and an excellent dancer as well.”

Had he made the usual compliments about her beauty, Charlotte would have dismissed him completely as a flatterer who wanted something from her, but it was a novelty to discover a gentleman who cared about something besides a lady’s appearance.  Nothing would ever come of it, but she told herself there could be no harm in enjoying a man’s company for a few minutes.

Author’s Note: This started out as a single vignette, but it ended up inspiring a series of connected Charlotte stories that will continue to appear through the course of this project. This isn’t the last you’ll see of Mr. Robinson!

Catch up with all the Untold Stories HERE