readful."

"Engagement!" cried Marianne, "there has been no engagement."

"No engagement!"

"No, he is not so unworthy as you believe him. He has broken no faith
with me."

"But he told you that he loved you."

"Yes--no--never absolutely. It was every day implied, but never
professedly declared. Sometimes I thought it had been--but it never
was."

"Yet you wrote to him?"

"Yes: could that be wrong after all that had passed? But I cannot
talk."

Elinor said no more, and turning again to the three letters which now
raised a much stronger curiosity than before, directly ran over the
contents of all. The first, which was what her sister had sent him on
their arrival in town, was to this effect:--

"Berkeley Street, January.

"How surprised you will be, Willoughby, on receiving this;
and I think you will feel something more than surprise, when
you know that I am in town. An opportunity of coming hither,
though with Mrs. Jennings, was a temptation we could not
resist. I wish you may receive this in time to come here
tonight, but I will not depend on it. At any rate I shall
expect you to-morrow. For the present, adieu.

M.D."

Her second note, which had been written on the morning after the dance
at the Middletons', was in these words:--

"I cannot express my disappointment in having missed you the
day before yesterday, nor my astonishment at not having
received any answer to a note which I sent you above a week
ago. I have been expecting to hear from you, and still more
to see you, every hour of the day. Pray call again as soon
as possible, and explain the reason of my having expected
this in vain. You had better come earlier another time,
because we are generally out by one. We were last night at
Lady Middleton's, where there was a dance. I have been told
that you were asked to be of the party. But could it be so?
You must be very much altered indeed since we parted, if
that could be the case, and you not there. But I will not
suppose this possible, and I hope very soon to receive your
personal assurance of its being otherwise.

M.D."

The contents of her last note to him were these:--

"What am I to imagine, Willoughby, by your behaviour last
night? Again I demand an explanation of it. I was prepared
to meet you with the pleasure which our separation naturally
produced,--with