Sense and Sensibility, chapters 21-25

Austen must have had a roaring good breakfast the day she started writing chapter 21, because it crackles with comic energy. The Palmers are booted offstage only to make way for a new pair of arrivals, sisters who are essentially picked up by Sir John in Exeter after being discovered to be relations of Mrs. Jennings, and whom he promptly invites to come stay at Barton Park. His wife is alarmed at the thought that "she was very soon to receive a visit from two girls whom she had never...