I find Col Brandon's immediate attachment to Marianne perfectly plausible. Yes, dear readers, love at first sight is a real-life phenonemon Because I've known of and heard of too many "love at first sights!" I've been married to one of those "love at first sight" wonderful women for going on 38 years! I go to "Emma" (my personal favorite) to look at attachments. Mr. Knightly's brother is married to Emma's sister but even though he sees faults in Emma's sister, there is love in abundance to "cover a multitude of evils." My bride of 38 years had 4 sisters and a brother. I found in all of those sisters something attractive. Does this make any sense? The devine Miss Austen, in practically all of her works, puts forth the maxim that you not only marry the individual, but the entire family! That is just another feature of Miss Austen's genius is her honoring (for better or or worse)the basic unit of our existence. It is not the government, nor the province/state, nor the village, but the family unit.