Mrs. Hale is the most sympathetic to Minnie Wright because she knows about Minnie's unhappy marriage to Mr. Wright. Her sympathy is also evident when Mrs. Hale asks Mrs. Peters to lie to Minnie about her preserves. Mrs Hale tells Peter, " If I was you, I wouldn't tell her her fruit was gone. Tell her it ain't. Tell her it's all right. Take this in to prove it to her. She—she may never know whether it was broke or not."
Is this short enough?
Yes although it wasn’t from appearance they laugh in the same, loud way, and sometimes they have the same ideas.
I believe it is A due to "The lady made detailed plans, engaged the caterer and the orchestra well in advance" isn't exactly connect well and be hard to understand so you'd put a comma between "caterer, and".