So possibly this elopement is one of hte more implausible aspects of Persuasion. I can't see that Mrs C would be so lost for everything but love as to run off iwth him. She might love him. Sehe might give up Sir Walter for him, but I dont think she'd give up her position in society so willingly. I shoudl say that she might start a discreet affair with him, and that he would hope to influence her not to marry Sir W, but unless he offered a ring himself, she would not leave Bath and go away with him. However Austen does say that he might be wheedled inot marrying her... so I suppose it is possible that she might pull it off and be received in certian circles...