I love this little encounter in Chapter 4 when Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Thorpe meet and begin to chat. I always find it humorous how the two ladies seem to be attempting to kindly one-up each other in regards to what they've been doing with their lives. For a brief moment, it seems Mrs. Thorpe has won since she has children and, alas, Mrs. Allen does not. I always feel a bit of sympathy for Mrs. Allen at this moment thinking that she may be quite disappointed with not having any children and that could be why she seems lost in her own world of fashion. It's her thing. If she can't be a mother, she'll be a fashion expert.

I always chuckle at the second half of this encounter.

...Mrs. Allen had no similar information to give, no similar triumphs to press on the unwilling and unbelieving ear of her friend, and was forced to sit and appear to listen to all these maternal effusions, consoling herself, however, with the discovery, which her keen eye soon made, that the lace on Mrs. Thorpe’s pelisse was not half so handsome as that on her own.