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