Oh I love Miss Bates!

No secret is safe with Miss Bates;her tongue might be undiscriminating, but her eyes are a perspicacious window on all the small things hidden in Highbury.
Her niece is all dignified silence, with nothing delineated or distinguished, but to what avail, when Miss Bates is near?

In this one short visit, Miss Bates manages to provide us with - information on her own abuses of pork; on Mrs Cole as a determined gossip; on Mrs Bates thoughts on having a bachelor gallant as a vicar (a reflection that almost amounts to criticism);that Mr Elton's pursuit of Emma is known about town, Harriet's hopes for Mr Elton ditto; that the Perrys and the Coles were married within the last ten years; and that she has more neighbours to visit than she can fit into one afternoon. She is precise, triumphing over Jane's insularity with her description of Mr Dixon (a man that she has never met in her life!)- almost equal to her description of Jane being hit by the boom while the yacht was jibing (without knowing anything about sailing).
No attention is too subtle to escape her notice - not Mr Elton giving her mother the front pew, not Mr Knightley giving Jane his arm and escorting her home while Miss Bates goes on.

There is one part of her speech that is still cryptic to me - the little revelation " and Jane said, 'Shall I go down instead? for I think you have a little cold, and Patty has been washing the kitchen.'"
What are we to make of this little piece of insincerity? I don't quite know why a washed kitchen should be a less desirable place for a person with a cold to be, than an unwashed one. Her motive is a puzzle also - does she think it would be quicker if she dealt with Patty and the salting pan? Or is she looking for an opportunity to escape visiting Hartfield? Jane Fairfax is certainly not afraid of making herself handy in the kitchen, but the polite little lie that prefaces it, makes me think that she has more on her mind than pork.