and I don't think JA would have softened her description of him. IMO, JA gives us this information for two reasons (other than the humor in the passage LaurieC quoted, because, even though we would not want to hear of anyone speak of a young man this way in real life, the passage is humorous)--to show us the character of the Musgroves, and to show the character of CW. The Musgroves think more about Richard in death than they ever did in life; perhaps Richard would have benefitted had they paid more attention to him before his character had become so unmanageable that the only solution his parents could see was sending him off to sea. CW obviously despised Richard (which was only apparent to Anne), but shows what a gentleman he is by taking the time to speak to Mrs. Musgrove about her son.