Ch 7: Enter the "bloviator." We get an indication of the boorishness of Mr. Thorpe when Miss Austen takes up almost an entire page of him explaining how long it took and how far it was from Tetbury. Then it was his gig. Then it was his horse. I felt myself grumbling: "what's your point?" or..."Is this going to take long??"

Not knowing what to make of this vanity-soaked blow-hard, poor intimidated Catherine tries to apologize for her very valid personal opinion:

“........Have you ever read Udolpho, Mr. Thorpe?”

“Udolpho! Oh, Lord! Not I; I never read novels; I have something else to do.”

Catherine, humbled and ashamed, was going to apologize for her question, but....."