Agreed. Why does she suddenly "plead for her former freind" and then turn on him? I think that she is not acting very well here, and Austen is struggling ot make her character seem plausible and not too unlikable. yes she's poor and has had a bad time and she's adapted well... but if she was going to try and push Anne to marry him, and then found that A did not wnat to marry him, why not jsut say nothing? If shes quite sure that A is in no dnager from Mr E why not leave the matter alone? He MAY (as she says) have genuinely reformed and may not make another woman a bad husband... and if A isn't going to be that woman, why then turn on the man and attack him?