I think the chapter in which Henry concocts a short gothic romance for Catherine is one of the most delightful in the novel, but you're right that it serves to reinforce her ideas; I wonder if part of his gentleness with her later is his realization that he had a part in those ideas. A small and playful part, of course, but still . . .

Henry is so obviously enjoying spinning the fantasy for Catherine that I have to wonder, in the midst of so many other defenses of the novel that occur in NA, whether this is part of Austen's own joy of creation spilling over into the text. I always picture her writing this chapter with a complicit little smile on her lips. Isn't Catherine's "Do go on" the sort of response any novelist would hope for? 8-)