My GR focus being Col Brandon, it's with great relief that I welcomed his slow shuffle into the story in Ch 7. Unfortunately it wasn't a Queen of Sheba entrance. No, to wit, his external features were described as:

- silent and grave
- an absolute old bachelor
- on the wrong side of five-and-thirty
- his face was not handsome

However, we also see some positive internal characteristics:

- his appearance was not unpleasing (disposition?)
- his countenance was sensible
- his address was particularly gentlemanlike

CB's first encounter with Marianne was particularly interesting b/c Marianne noticed him and JA's descripton of CB continued through Marianne's eyes:

Ch 7:
- his pleasure in music... was estimable
- he had outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment
- he was at an advanced state of life
- commanded Marianne's respect

Marianne respected him for his rapt attention at the pianoforte as she played (which made me suspect he was sitting clearly where they could see each other).

But she also viewed CB with a sense of "you poor old man" when "she was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonel's advanced state of life which humanity required."

The first impressions of CB (again, through Marianne's eyes) continued in Ch 8:

- he was old enough to be [her] father
- if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind
- he is aged and infirmed (confirmed by his complaints of rheumatism in his shoulder)
- ineligible for marriage ("thirty-five has nothing to do with matrimony")
- doomed to spend his marital life in the "constant confinement of a sick chamber"

Poor CB. Written off so quickly in the game.

On the other side of the coin, what could CB be thinking? There was nothing in the text to imply anything (since the POV wasn't CB's this week, and CB hadn't spoken a word thus far), except perhaps these:

- he was mesmerized by Marianne
- he heard Marianne play "without being in raptures"
- he was the silent type ("paid her only the compliment of attention")

It would not surprise me if the thoughts going through CB's mind as he sat there watching Marianne play the pianoforte included a quick computation on their age difference (if somehow Sir John Middleton, loquacious as he was, had divulged that bit of information, or if CB himself ventured to guess). Was it 18 years? Oh boy, did CB want to rob the cradle? LOL.

I look forward to what other nuggets we shall unearth about CB's character. However, in Ch 1-8, did I miss anything? Thanks for pointing out any CB traits I might have skipped over accidentally.