As I was reading the next section of chapters, something Elinor thought in reference to Edward made me realize I couldn't remember if he'd spoken any words yet and it seemed that I couldn't remember getting much information about him so I looked back. In this week's section, Edward, only speaks 16 words to Mrs. Dashwood expressing his concern that they will be moving so far away. Shockingly, a good deal of chapters 3 and 4 give a great deal of information through narration, observations and dialog by the Dashwoods. Because of the way this information is disseminated to us, Edward comes off as almost nonexistent, an outline without a flesh and blood body filled in... My thought is that you have to get to the end of the book and look back to figure out why Austen keeps Edward off-stage for so long.