Anne determines that Captain Wentworth is in love with neither Henrietta nor Louisa. After a few meetings, Charles Hayter stops attending the gatherings arranged by the Musgroves, seemingly giving up his pursuit of Henrietta.

The Musgrove sisters invite Mary and Anne on a long walk through the neighborhood, and Captain Wentworth and Charles Musgrove join them. As they walk, Anne feels alienated from the group.

Henrietta and Charles decide to call on their cousins at Winthrop while the rest of the group rests on a hill nearby. Anne accidentally overhears a conversation between Captain Wentworth and Louisa in which Wentworth praises Louisa’s strong character after she says: “I have no idea of being so easily persuaded,” and Wentworth claims that “My first wish for all, whom I am interested in, is that they should be firm” (81).

Louisa tells Wentworth that the Musgroves would have preferred Anne as a sister-in-law to Mary, but that Lady Russell “persuaded Anne to refuse him” (82), and describes the extreme pride of the Elliot family. Anne, deeply hurt by what she overhears, rejoins her sister and hopes that the group will start walking home.

Henrietta and Charles return with Hayter; it is clear from their behavior that Henrietta and Hayter have reconciled.