”So calm! — so cheerful! — how have you been supported?” —

“By feeling that I was doing my duty. — My promise to Lucy, obliged me to be secret.

I owed it to her, therefore, to avoid giving any hint of the truth; and I owed it to my family and friends, not to create in them a solicitude about me, which it could not be in my power to satisfy.”

Marianne seemed much struck.

“I have very often wished to undeceive yourself and my mother,” added Elinor; “and once or twice I have attempted it; — but without betraying my trust, I never could have convinced you.”

“Four months! — and yet you loved him!” —