I just can't see the humour in Mrs Musgrove's "fat sighings". Her feelings of sadness and pain are real, even if they are based on partial and imperfect recollections. Also, making assumptions about a person on the basis of their size is the same sort of thinking as categorising people because of their ethnicity and I cannot like it. But maybe that is a modern mind-set which would be anomalous in JA's time.

But it is a vivid little scene, and I agree with most of what you say about the Captain,and about the nature of their previous relationship. Anne is certainly still very attuned to reading the nuances of his expressions, but I don't see that he is equally attuned to her - his cold politeness at the end of chapter eight rather suggests to me that he is 'blanking her out' and not reading her at all.. So I'm reserving judgement about whether they are still kindred spirits.