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scrawls—but the ring with my hair you are very welcome to keep.”
Elinor read and returned it without any comment.
“I will not ask your opinion of it as a composition,” said Edward.—“For worlds would not I have had a letter of her’s seen by you in former days. In a sister it is bad enough, but in a wife!—how I have blushed over the pages of her writing!—and I believe I may say that since the first half year of our foolish—business—this is the only letter I ever received from her, of which the substance made me any amends for the defect of the stile.”
“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 indepen-
dence
