Another diatribe against Sir Walter to add to the stack:

The apple that is Anne fell quite a distance from Sir Walter but apparently v-e-r-y close to her beloved late Mother! Sir Walter just doesn't "get it." He chooses people to associate with that are, well at least breathing but not much else. From Ch 16:

".... 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...."

Contrast Anne's impressions of Lady Dalrymple and Miss Cartaret with her Father's disdain for Mrs. Smith, who JA extols as a most excellent woman in Ch 17 and all Sir Walter can think about is this:

"......a mere Mrs. Smith, an everyday Mrs. Smith, of all people and all names in the world, to be the chosen friend of Miss Anne Elliot, and to be preferred by her to her own family connections among the nobility of England and Ireland! Mrs. Smith! Such a name!...."

Anne has shown again, over and over, that she "gets it" and surrounds herself with the company of wonderful people, regardless of their station in life. Sir Walter and Elizabeth are pathetic; They certainly deserve each other and that is just about all they are going to get as far as real, genuine company. In contrast, our very heroic Anne has set herself up with a lifetime of friendship and warmth from her set of Sir Walter "nobodies."