they be insincere and shallow like the Miss Steeles? Besides, while Lady Middleton may not *hurt* them, she certainly allows her children to try and torment them while calling them "spirited" and dislikes them because they don't flatter her or her children.

I mean, none of them are wonderful, but I guess I'd rather have someone do as little with me as possible if they find my company irksome than to be flattered and used as she allows the Steeles to do.

But in the end, I still wonder why they should *have* to like her simply because she is their neighbor? She shows them no partiality, she does not encourage them, and she even can't bring herself to think them good-natured. There are people of my acquaintance who I meet up with in social situations, but whose company I do not seek otherwise simply because we have nothing in common. They do the same with me, and I assume it is for the same reason. I don't think of any of us as snobbish, just selective. To me, snobbish is snubbing that person's company, and even going out of one's way to avoid said company. We see that behavior in Marianne from the beginning, but Elinor always puts her best foot forward, and so does LM, to her credit.