The odd remark

I have been puzzling about a rather odd thing Austen says in the middle of the book:

From the latter circumstance it may be presumed that, whatever might be our heroine’s opinion of him, his [Captain Tilney's] admiration of her was not of a very dangerous kind; not likely to produce animosities between the brothers, nor persecutions to the lady. He cannot be the instigator of the three villains in horsemen’s greatcoats, by whom she will hereafter be forced into a traveling–chaise and four, which will drive off with incredible speed.

Well, that is preceded earlier in the book by another odd comment back in Book 1, Chapter 12. We are at the theatre and Catherine is feeling badly about the incident wherein John Thorpe refused to stop as they went by the Tilney's in his carriage. She is concerned that she has insulted the Tilneys. Seeing Henry at the theatre and concerned that he is being distant and formal, she worries:

Catherine was restlessly miserable; she could almost have run round to the box in which he sat and forced him to hear her explanation. Feelings rather natural than heroic possessed her; instead of considering her own dignity injured by this ready condemnation — instead of proudly resolving, in conscious innocence, to show her resentment towards him who could harbour a doubt of it, to leave to him all the trouble of seeking an explanation, and to enlighten him on the past only by avoiding his sight, or flirting with somebody else — she took to herself all the shame of misconduct, or at least of its appearance, and was only eager for an opportunity of explaining its cause.

What we have here is a contrast. But a contrast with what? We have not seen anything like the "heroic" feelings contrasted with natural feelings here from Catherine before. And she will not, as it turns out, respond this way at any point in the book. What's the point?

Now some might say, you're just being obtuse Jules. You don't want to see the obvious, that this is a burlesque of the Gothic novel. But here is the problem, if it is, how does this fit in. What other events is this in contrast with. The obvious possibility is Isabella's behaviour. These artificial heroic feelings are exactly what we would expect from her. But isn't the whole point here that reading these novels has made Catherine see the world in Gothic terms? That is precisely what has not happened yet.

Is it about to begin now?