Not to stray too far into Austenuations territory, I agree about both parallels people have drawn between Anne and CW and other couples: they have a real physical attraction/communication/what you will, and they have a history that goes way back.

Both of these factors explain why, although indeed they don't _talk_ that much, there's a WHOLE LOT going on between them, and that, for me, sums up the two most striking characteristics about _Persuasion_:

1) the ON's descriptions of the action (however subtle that action is, sometimes to point of seeming like non-action) get their shifting and sometimes contradictory feelings across so well;