I think Austen does such a brilliant job of showing them falling in love exactly as they might in real life. Liking each other, getting to know each other better, ect.

As much as Catherine gets her head caught up in novels she’s not like Isabella claiming that her heart was “irrecoverably gone” the “very first moment [she] beheld him” or spending nights in sleepless agony. She’s attracted to him, she’s excited when she anticipates seeing him and disappointed when she doesn’t, and hoping he has feelings for her. She doesn’t feel any need to turn it into something more dramatic for the sake of the narrative.