that her irony could be scintillating, that her wit was scalpel sharp, but that her cutting remarks could be painful--and not always therapeutic. I wonder if the "personal size and mental sorrow" paragraph might be an sort of apology, a glimpse into JA's mind when writing--perhaps pausing to consider whether she should include the "large fat sighings" & then deciding that she should do so with the last sentence: "But fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which reason will patronize in vain, --which tast cannot tolerate, --which ridicule will seize."