] We really don't see much of Edward in these opening chapters.... He doesn't speak until Ch. 5 upon being told that the ladies will be moving to Devonshire:

] "Devonshire! Are you, indeed, going there? So far from hence! And to what part of it?"

] And that's it from Edward. Hardly lover-like, though there is some feeling in that "So far from hence!" line.

Well, if she had included half a dozen conversations between them, you wouldn't get anything stronger. I can't quite imagine JA putting in any sword-fights with Margaret, and I doubt you are going to get anything more romantic from Edward than his "so far from hence!".

] Why do you think JA showed so little of the interaction between Edward and Elinor? I think it because the novel she was trying to write was the conflict between "sense" and "sensibility" rather than conflict in love. But still... I could have done with a little less of Lady Middleton's "insipidy" and a little more of the relationship.

As you say, she wants to get on with the real story. The best evidence for this is that the rest of the interaction she does describe - the Cowper reading, Marianne contriving to leave them together, and the farewell - is described by Marianne. What Marianne thinks of it is more important than the events themselves - more important to the story JA wants to tell, I mean.