Sense and Sensibility

by Jane Austen

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.

"The lady, I suppose, has no choice in the affair." "Choice!—how do you mean?"

"You are very wrong, Mr. Willoughby, very blamable," said Elinor, while her voice, in spite of herself, betrayed her compassionate emotion; "you ought not to speak in this way, either of Mrs. Willoughby or my sister. You had made your own choice. It was not forced on you. Your wife has a claim to your politeness, to your respect, at least. She must be attached to you, or she would not have married you. To treat her with unkindness, to speak of her slightingly is no atonement to Marianne—nor can I suppose it a relief to your own conscience."

"I will tell her all that is necessary to what may comparatively be called, your justification.

Had I died,—it would have been self-destruction.