He stopped.
"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."
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