Now that we are on the next set of Chapters, I can post another quote from the book that I think supports my point.

Yes Elinor encourages her mother to exert herself, but I doubt she makes fun of her or makes sly insinuations.

In ch. 16 Elinor is concerned about Marianne
"But at length she was secured by the exertions of Elinor, who greatly disapproved such continual seclusion. They walked along the road through the valley, and chiefly in silence, for Marianne's mind could not be controuled, and Elinor, satisfied with gaining one point, would not then attempt more."

Elinor doesn't make fun or make sly insinuations over Marianne's distress over someone else not as intimately connected with them. So why would she do it over Marianne's expressions of grief over the death of her father?