Sorry I didn't clarify. I did *not* mean a physical love LOL and obviously too, due to the time period and all.

What happened was that I was quite taken by surprise that Mrs Dashwood and Marianne were so QUICK to declare their affections for Edward without much ado, as if they had married off Elinor when there was no proposal in Ch 3.

I often wondered how fast people fall in love in those days, and how quickly marriages were arranged, which are IMHO, too hasty. In this case we know it worked out (ooops, spoilers) but I just felt that Mrs Dashwood jumped the gun, and then Marianne went along with her. I had expected that Mrs Dashwood would just "consider" or "like" (as Elinor had said) instead of using the deeper word of "love."

I have not read Ch 4 in this GR, so you are way ahead of me :-) Thanks for the heads-up when I get to Ch 4 :-)