"Oh!" cried Miss Steele, looking significantly round at them, "I dare say Lucy's beau is quite as modest and pretty-behaved as Miss Dashwood's." (Chapter 24)

Nancy is not always nice and open to Elinor. I thought the above was a very mean snipe from Nancy which Elinor is supposed to understand—it shows me that Lucy has confided to her that Elinor knows of the engagement and Nancy is rubbing it in just a little. The above comment reminds me of Elinor’s fancy In Chapter 21 that Nancy is ill-natured because of the manner in which she spoke of Edward suggesting she knew something to his disadvantage. I think hinting that you have unacknowledged information is not actually very open in itself and, in fact, points to you being just the opposite. Nancy, to me, seems less open than just unable to control herself; that, coupled with an inability to distinguish what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to say—considering the secrecy of Lucy’s engagement Nancy’s comment is in fact not appropriate.

I cannot attach much significance to Nancy’s nice and open attitude towards Elinor in Chapter 36. Nancy crowned Lady Middleton’s second boy as playful after he violently pinched one of her fingers and called Lady Middleton a sweet woman in Chapter 21; is there even the slightest probability that these are the true sentiments of her heart or are they just the supporting framework of her and Lucy’s plan to ingratiate them with Lady Middleton? My point is Nancy’s motives cannot be taken at face value.