I have to confess to enjoying the verbal sparring between Elinor and Lucy in Ch. 22 through 24 as Lucy reveals her secret.

There are so many good lines there, and at the same time you feel like wiping that simpering expression off Lucy's face you want to cheer for Elinor.

Here are a few favourite 'zingers' from the conversations that made me want to either give Lucy a SUTH or cheer for Elinor:

Lucy:

"I know he has the highest opinion in the world of all your family, and looks upon yourself and the other Miss Dashwoods quite as his own sisters."

" Though you do not know him so well as me, Miss Dashwood, you must have seen enough of him to be sensible he is very capable of making a woman sincerely attached to him."

"...but Edward's affection and constancy nothing can deprive me of, I know."

"Edward's love for me has been pretty well put to the test, by our long, very long absence since we were first engaged, and it has stood the trial so well, that I should be unpardonable to doubt it now. I can safely say that he has never gave me one moment's alarm on that account from the first."

And some of Elinor's:

"Thank you," cried Lucy warmly, "for breaking the ice; you have set my heart at ease by it; for I was somehow or other afraid I had offended you by what I told you that Monday."

"Offended me! How could you suppose so? Believe me," and Elinor spoke it with the truest sincerity, "nothing could be
farther from my intention, than to give you such an idea. Could you have a motive for the trust that was not honourable and flattering to me?"

"If the strength of your reciprocal attachment had failed, as between many people and under many circumstances it naturally
would during a four years' engagement, your situation would have been pitiable indeed."

You can practically see the sparks flying as they talk!

And yet although Elinor's wit and self command are admirable, the situation seems to be making her think/act in ways that are not like herself. At the end of Ch. 21, Elinor wants someone--anyone--to pursue the subject of the Steeles' acquaintance with Edward and goes so far as to think Mrs. Jennings (in this instance) "deficient either in curiosity after petty information, or in a disposition to communicate it."

Elinor's offer to help Lucy with the paper filigree seems out of character for her, and when she says "I should like the work exceedingly" it is a falsehood.

Even her barb to Lucy "Mr. Ferrars, I believe, is entirely dependent on his mother." seems out of character for Elinor.