h business this is the only
letter I ever received from her, of which the substance made me any
amends for the defect of the style."

"However it may have come about," said Elinor, after a pause,--"they
are certainly married. And your mother has brought on herself a most
appropriate punishment. The independence she settled on Robert,
through resentment against you, has put it in his power to make his
own choice; and she has actually been bribing one son with a thousand
a-year, to do the very deed which she disinherited the other for
intending to do. She will hardly be less hurt, I suppose, by Robert's
marrying Lucy, than she would have been by your marrying her."

"She will be more hurt by it, for Robert always was her favourite. She
will be more hurt by it, and on the same principle will forgive him
much sooner."

In what state the affair stood at present between them, Edward knew
not, for no communication with any of his family had yet been
attempted by him. He had quitted Oxford within four and twenty hours
after Lucy's letter arrived, and with only one object before him, the
nearest road to Barton, had had no leisure to form any scheme of
conduct, with which that road did not hold the most intimate
connection. He could do nothing till he were assured of his fate with
Miss Dashwood; and by his rapidity in seeking _that_ fate, it is to be
supposed, in spite of the jealousy with which he had once thought of
Colonel Brandon, in spite of the modesty with which he rated his own
deserts, and the politeness with which he talked of his doubts, he did
not, upon the whole, expect a very cruel reception. It was his
business, however, to say that he _did_, and he said it very prettily.
What he might say on the subject a twelvemonth after, must be referred
to the imagination of husbands and wives.

That Lucy had certainly meant to deceive, to go off with a flourish of
malice against him in her message by Thomas, was perfectly clear to
Elinor; and Edward himself, now thoroughly enlightened on her
character, had no scruple in believing her capable of the utmost
meanness of wanton ill-nature. Though his eyes had been long opened,
even before his acquaintance with Elinor began, to her ignorance and a
want of liberality in some of her opinions, they had been equally
imputed, by him, to her want of education; and till her last letter
reached him, he had always believed her to be a well-disposed,
good-hearted girl, and thoroughly a