Scott’s letter also mentions the benefits of even painful experiences like unrequited love, which can shape individuals in unexpectedly positive ways. Using this idea,
Fay urges
Alice to look for the upsides of her tumultuous relationship with her professor, and to not let the pain of it interfere with her work. However, she also suggests, seemingly sarcastically, that Alice could try behaving like Fanny in
Mansfield Park, in the hope that being virtuous will help her win over the professor. In postscript, she adds that Alice does not win 50 pounds, because Alice guessed that Fay stopped her story about
Grace D’Albier simply because it was boring. In reality, Fay says, she stopped the story because it had no real point.