I just love Mary's letter. It comes at such a welcome time in the novel, too, just as we are getting quite bogged down in Bath and want, like Anne, to return to the events at Lyme.

In a few short pages JA manages to pack in so much of Mary's hypocritical sense of logic.

A couple of other things to note about it: she never does tell us how Louisa bore the journey (though she's sure she won't have any trouble! After all Mary can get sick on a ten minute carraige ride having to be crowded in next to the Musgroves, but Louisa who has been immobile for months is not allowed to be in danger from a long journey.) Then she says that the Admiral, who is suffering from gout so much so that his doctor has recommended him to go to Bath, doesn't look very sick.