I have always been mystified by everyone's silence about Anne's engagement and disappointment. From Chapter 4, referring to Anne and Lady Russell:

They knew not each other's opinion, either its constancy or its change, on the one leading point of Anne's conduct, for the subject was never alluded to; but Anne, at seven-and-twenty, thought very differently from what she had been made to think at nineteen.

The topic is never brought up again for 8 years? That seems extraordinary to me. Why the embargo on the topic? Too painful? It's never been my experience that avoiding the subject is a good way of dealing with pain. Embarrassing? Maybe I'm being influenced by the movie here, where LR has the line: "We will not speak of it!" Here it's almost as if there was something shameful about it, which wasn't true. Can anyone shed any light on this?