- Catherine hopes her new crush Henry is at the Pump-room (which would make a risqué name for a club), but he totally doesn't show and Catherine is bummed out.
- She's stuck talking to Mrs. Allen again.
- But then a random lady comes up and says she remembers Mrs. Allen from school.
- It turns out this is Mrs. Allen's old friend Mrs. Thorpe, who totally tracked her down on Facebook. Oh, wait.
- Mrs. Thorpe brags about her sons and Mrs. Allen can only fake interest since she has no kids.
- Luckily for Catherine, Mrs. Thorpe has three daughters around Catherine's age.
- The eldest, Isabella, is twenty-one, and is introduced as the best looking by Mrs. Thorpe. Isabella is thus the Marcia Brady of her family.
- In a remarkable coincidence, Isabella's brother John is best friends with Catherine's brother James at Oxford.
- So Catherine and Isabella promptly become best friends too.
- Catherine and Isabella gossip about fashion, boys, dances, and London, which Isabella knows all about since she's visited like two times or something.
- Isabella is four years older and dazzles Catherine with all her worldly experience and Catherine is a bit awed by her at first.
- The two new friends are thrilled to find out that they are both attending the theater tonight and will be attending the same church the next day.
- The narrator closes the chapter by telling us that Mrs. Thorpe is a widow and the family does not have much money.