First, Cheryl, let me apologize for putting a spoiler in my last post. Sorry about that, and thank you for deleting it.

As for the autumnal images, to MY way of thinking, the autumn doesn't really mean declining youth, because we all know that 6 months from now there will be spring and everything will come alive again. Not at all to belittle Anne's feelings, but I feel she's just being a little melancholy at this point because she's "in the doghouse". And as for the quote "...autumn, that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness..." that makes me feel that if Wentworth does't appreciate Anne, then he doesn't have any taste. Then when he says that she was altered beyond recognition I just don't buy it. She's not that much older. She may be less blooming :) but she's still a young woman. He's just being catty. So these passages don't make me sad for Anne, they make me a little angry at Wentworth for being, IMVHO, a bit childish, and they intrigue me because it makes me wonder how things will turn out, and if and how she will get back in his good graces, and even whether I want them to come to an understanding. Is he going to be resentful all the time or will he get over it? Will he appreciate the autumnal Anne, or will he choose the more "spring" personality, Louisa?