forcing yourself upon my notice,
requires a very particular excuse. - What is it, that you mean by it?« -
    »I mean« - said he, with serious energy - »if I can, to make you hate me one
degree less than you do now. I mean to offer some kind of explanation, some kind
of apology, for the past; to open my whole heart to you, and by convincing you,
that though I have been always a blockhead, I have not been always a rascal, to
obtain something like forgiveness from Ma - from your sister.«
    »Is this the real reason of your coming?«
    »Upon my soul it is,« - was his answer, with a warmth which brought all the
former Willoughby to her remembrance, and in spite of herself made her think him
sincere.
    »If that is all, you may be satisfied already, - for Marianne does - she has
long forgiven you.«
    »Has she!« - he cried, in the same eager tone. - »Then she has forgiven me
before she ought to have done it. But she shall forgive me again, and on more
reasonable grounds. - Now will you listen to me?«
    Elinor bowed her assent.
    »I do not know,« said he, after a pause of expectation on her side, and
thoughtfulness on his own, - »how you may have accounted for my behaviour to
your sister, or what diabolical motive you may have imputed to me. - Perhaps you
will hardly think the better of me, - it is worth the trial however, and you
shall hear every thing. When I first became intimate in your family, I had no
other intention, no other view in the acquaintance than to pass my time
pleasantly while I was obliged to remain in Devonshire, more pleasantly than I
had ever done before. Your sister's lovely person and interesting manners could
not but please me; and her behaviour to me almost from the first, was of a kind
- It is astonishing, when I reflect on what it was, and what she was, that my
heart should have been so insensible! - But at first I must confess, my vanity
only was elevated by it. Careless of her happiness, thinking only of my own
amusement, giving way to feelings which I had always been too much in the habit
of indulging, I endeavoured, by every means in my power, to make myself pleasing
to her, without any design of returning her affection.«
    Miss Dashwood at this point, turning