dancing at the Netherfield Ball must surely be judged from the perspective of it being an entirely different social situation than the Meryton Assembly.

You clearly seem not to have understood the different social forces at work here.

Two important points for you to consider : please may I ask you not to refer to AOA topics as frequently as you do, Tracy as it really breaking the rules of the GR. And please do not twist what I said below We have not discussed Mr Knightley and his behaviour re dancing here as it is patently beyond the scope of this Group Read. If you would like to discuss this point further , then may I ask you to be gracious enough to wait until after the GR has ended and then I will gladly discuss this with you , yet again ,at either the Emma board or AOA. As you can well imagine I am slightly busy at the moment, and would appreciate not having to deal with points arising form “Emma” at this precise moment.

Darcy’s behaviour at the Meryton Assembly as insulting intwo ways.In the general and in the specific.

That he chose to dance with only the women in his party at Meryton was an insult to the whole company assembled in the room.

As Robbin has noted above, his insulting words aimed at Lizzy was a separate action of a more particular, personal nature, wherby he stated he would not dance with a woman “slighted by other men” ;-)

At Meryton there were few men available , and certainly more women then men were present for dancing in the assembly room. Darcy should have assessed the situation and as a gentlemen danced far more than he did( like his more socially aware friend.

At Netherfield the situation was very different :there were men a plenty available to dance. Bingley had invited the whole Mess room of officers to attend , and we know only of one non-attendee, Wickham . We do not know for certain how many dances Darcy danced. We do know that Elizabeth had many partners: M Collins an Officer and Darcy ,and only put herself beyond the possibility of dancing further in the latter stage of the ball because she refused Mr Collins who then made it impossible for her to accept any other man ,by standing at her side for the remainder of the evening.