Chapter 40 - Part 3 - Sense and Sensibility

And so you are forced to do it. Well, that is an odd kind of delicacy. However, I will not disturb you seeing her preparing to write. You know your own concerns best. So, goodbye, my dear. I have not heard of anything to please me so well since Charlotte was brought to bed. And away she went, but returning again in a moment. I have just been thinking of Betty's sister, my dear. I should be very glad to see her so good a mistress. But whether she would do for a lady's maid, I am sure I can't tell. She is an excellent housemaid and works very well at the needle. However, you will think of all that at your leisure." "'Certainly, ma'am,' replied Eleanor, not hearing much of what she said, and more anxious to be alone than to be mistress of the subject. How she should begin, how she could express herself in her note to Edward, was now all her concern. The particular circumstances between them made a difficulty of that which to any person would have been the easiest thing in the world, but she equally feared to say too much or too little, and sat deliberating over her paper with the pen in her hand, till broken in on by the entrance of Edward himself. He had met Mrs. Jennings at the door in her way to the carriage, as he came to leave his farewell card, and she, after apologising for not returning herself, had obliged him to enter by saying that Miss Dashwood was above, and wanted to speak with him on very particular business. Eleanor had just been congratulating herself in the midst of her perplexity that, however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter, it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth, when her visitor entered, to force her upon this gracious exertion of all."