Regrets

" Alas! with all her reasoning's, she found, that to retentive feelings eight years may be little more than nothing" (Austen, 53).

Austen is now confirming that Anne still has feelings for her past lover. This is yet another example of the importance of regret to this novel, and shows that Austen is starting to develop this motif early in the story. She is also foreshadowing that Anne's one true love interest will be her long lost Captain for the rest of the novel.