 more warmly.«
    Marianne was rejoiced to find her sister so easily pleased.
    »Of his sense and his goodness,« continued Elinor, »no one can, I think, be
in doubt, who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved
conversation. The excellence of his understanding and his principles can be
concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent. You know enough
of him to do justice to his solid worth. But of his minuter propensities as you
call them, you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than
myself. He and I have been at times thrown a good deal together, while you have
been wholly engrossed on the most affectionate principle by my mother. I have
seen a great deal of him, have studied his sentiments and heard his opinion on
subjects of literature and taste; and, upon the whole, I venture to pronounce
that his mind is well-informed, his enjoyment of books exceedingly great, his
imagination lively, his observation just and correct, and his taste delicate and
pure. His abilities in every respect improve as much upon acquaintance as his
manners and person. At first sight, his address is certainly not striking; and
his person can hardly be called handsome, till the expression of his eyes, which
are uncommonly good, and the general sweetness of his countenance, is perceived.
At present, I know him so well, that I think him really handsome; or, at least,
almost so. What say you, Marianne?«
    »I shall very soon think him handsome, Elinor, if I do not now. When you
tell me to love him as a brother, I shall no more see imperfection in his face,
than I now do in his heart.«
    Elinor started at this declaration, and was sorry for the warmth she had
been betrayed into, in speaking of him. She felt that Edward stood very high in
her opinion. She believed the regard to be mutual; but she required greater
certainty of it to make Marianne's conviction of their attachment agreeable to
her. She knew that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they
believed the next - that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to
expect. She tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister.
    »I do not attempt to deny,« said she, »that I think very highly of him -
that I greatly esteem, that I like him.«
    Marianne here burst forth with indignation -
    »Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor
