My focus for this Group Read will be on the character of Captain Frederick Tilney as a part of his family.

Chapter 1-8
Well, there's not much here is there. All we know of the family (from Chapter 3) is that Mr. Allan determined that Henry was from a "very respectable family in Gloucestershire" I don't suppose that is specific enough to come to any conclusion other than that they have some property and some money.

However, I did notice in these opening chapters an abundance of mysterious people. They are specifically mentioned and they do very specific things, which is what struck my notice. I wonder who they can be?

In Chapter 2, there is the gentleman who helps Catherine and Mrs. Allan to tea things. What a gentlemanly thing to do! And of course there are then to two young men who pronounced Catherine to be very pretty at the end of the ball. What charming and sensible men!

In Chapter 6, Isabella says that she saw a young man look at Catherine with love. Hmmm… I wonder who that could have been? Or perhaps, Isabella is just saying that to make Catherine blush and feel pretty? We will have to see.. Then there are the two young men whom Isabella chases after! Unfortunately they seem too deep in conversation to notice her or Catherine.

In Chapter 8, the dance partners of several characters roused my interest. Who is Miss Tilney's gentleman partner? Or the young lady with whom Mr. Tilney dances when he can't find Catherine. Even the Misses Thorpe find partners and Mr. Thorpe does not mind quizzing them! I wonder who they can be?

One more little mystery and I will have done. In Chapter 4, at the very end, is a passage I've never noticed before: This brief account of the family is intended to supersede the necessity of a long and minute detail from Mrs. Thorpe herself, of her past adventures and sufferings, which might otherwise be expected to occupy the three or four following chapters; in which the worthlessness of lords and attornies might be set forth, and conversations, which had passed twenty years before, be minutely repeated.

Twenty years would put the incident referred to at about the time of Mrs. Thorpe's marriage or shortly after. If Isabella is four years older than Catherine; she is 21. Do we know how old Isabella's brother is? In Chapter 7 he greets his "two younger sisters" which may imply that Isabella is older. And again at the end of Chapter 8 he says "Come along with me, and I will shew you the four greatest quizzers in the room; my two younger sisters and their partners." I think Isabella is older than John.