Read it through once

"You shall; and, to be brief, when I quitted Barton last October,--but this will give you no idea--I must go farther back. You will find me a very awkward narrator, Miss Dashwood; I hardly know where to begin. A short account of myself, I believe, will be necessary, and it _shall_ be a short one. On such a subject," sighing heavily, "can I have little temptation to be diffuse."