Answer:
Optimistic. Hope this helps!
These lines, so typical of Austen’s wry tone, allow Austen to “criticize social conversation as pointless and insincere” and “reveal Lady Middleton's character as superficial and proud”. This passage shows how social conversations are not necessary as they don't provide relevant information and people just uses them to talk about insignificant details and to avoid uncomfortable silence. The author also describes the personality of Lady Middleton as being superficial and how she uses her son to start an irrelevant talk.
When you cut the edible part of wheat theres the stalks the non edible
