CH. 19 - "The house belonged to people in business. Mrs. and Miss Bates occupied the drawing-room floor; and there, in the very moderate sized apartment, which was every thing to them, the visitors were most cordially and even gratefully welcomed; the quiet neat old lady, who with her knitting was seated in the warmest corner, wanting even to give up her place to Miss Woodhouse, and her more active, talking daughter, almost ready to overpower them with care and kindness, thanks for their visit, solicitude for their shoes, anxious inquiries after Mr. Woodhouse's health, cheerful communications about her mother's, and sweet-cake from the beaufet: -- "Mrs. Cole had just been there, just called in for ten minutes, and had been so good as to sit an hour with them, and she had taken a piece of cake and been so kind as to say she liked it very much; and therefore she hoped Miss Woodhouse and Miss Smith would do them the favour to eat a piece too." "

Would the size and style of the Bates household be the same as shown in E2? If it says they occupied the drawing room, would that just mean the setting for that particular scene? It would have to have had three bedrooms to account for Jane coming. No wonder she got out for her morning walks, because it would be fairly cosy for a private person like she is. If it was a house that belonged to people in business, what did this mean? Did it just mean the people in business were the landlords, or let them use it graciously?

Sweet-cake would be like normal cake, wouldn't it? I love the food discussed mostly through the Bates'(and Mr Woodhouse!), and the baked apples. Would the "beaufet" be like a normal "buffet" of recent fashion, the same kind of thing?