? ? ? ? "Well, sir," said Elinor, who, though pitying him, grew impatient for his departure, "and this is all?"
? ? ? ? "Ah!--no,--have you forgot what passed in town?-- That infamous letter--Did she shew it you?"
? ? ? ? "Yes, I saw every note that passed."
? ? ? ? "When the first of hers reached me (as it immediately did, for I was in town the whole time,) what I felt is-- in the common phrase, not to be expressed; in a more simple one--perhaps too simple to raise any emotion-- my feelings were very, very painful.--Every line, every word was--in the hackneyed metaphor which their dear writer, were she here, would forbid--a dagger to my heart. To know that Marianne was in town was--in the same language-- a thunderbolt.--Thunderbolts and daggers!--what a reproof would she have given me!--her taste, her opinions--I believe they are better known to me than my own,--and I am sure they are dearer."
? ? ? ? Elinor's heart, which had undergone many changes in the course of this extraordinary conversation, was now softened again;--yet she felt it her duty to check such ideas in her companion as the last.
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