We get our first glimpses of General Tilney this week, just small things, but telling to those of us who know what will happen. ;-) What do we see (no spoilers now!)?

We first see him in Ch. 10 when Catherine finds herself being watched whilst dancing with Henry, who tells her that is his father. The General is obviously interested in her and what she is doing with his son.

In Ch. 12 Catherine tried to apologize to Eleanor for missing their walk but was turned away at the door. Henry tells her at the theatre that it was the General's doing - he was preparing to walk out, did not care to have it put off, and so denied Eleanor to Catherine. Catherine thinks it odd that he could not postpone his walk a few minutes. Does this foreshadow an impatient personality? Or just a man set in his ways?

Also at the theatre, she sees John Thorpe talking to the General and both of them looking her way. Hmmm.... that does not auger well, I fear...

In ch. 13 he is all civility, inviting her into the drawing room, trying to get her to stay for dinner, procuring her attendance at a later date, admiring the elasticity of her walk... Very kind and gentlemanly, if a bit much. I mean, it does seem like overkill, doesn't it? But don't you love the line when Catherine leaves the Tilney's to go home?

"Catherine, delighted by all that had passed, proceeded gaily to Pulteney Street, walking, as she concluded, with great elasticity, though she had never thought of it before."

LOL!