In ch.16 we discover Anne's opinion of the "great cousins".

Anne was ashamed. Had Lady Dalrymple and her daughter even been very agreeable, she would still have been ashamed of the agitation they created; but they were nothing. There was no superiority of manner, accomplishment, or understanding. Lady Dalrymple had acquired the name of "a charming woman," because she had a smile and a civil answer for everybody. Miss Carteret, with still less to say, was so plain and so awkward, that she would never have been tolerated in Camden Place but for her birth.

I'm actually inclined to defend Lady Dalrymple here. She may have nothing to say for herself, but at least she has a smile and a civil answer for everybody, compared to the dragon that P2 portrays. Of course, the point is that Sir Walter and Elizabeth have totally overblown things because of their snobbery, but this is one of those moments when I wonder if *I* could possibly measure up to JA's standards of conversation, or if she would secretly write me off as a "d___d tedious waste of an evening"! ;-)