How can I get whitespace between tags to not show up

<html>
<head>
    <style type="text/css">
    	a {
    		border: 1px solid #939393;
    		margin: 15px;
    		padding: 8px;
    	}
    	a:hover {
    		border-color: #111;
    	}
    	a.collapse-left {
    		border-left-width: 0px;
    		margin-left: 0px;
    	}
    	a.collapse-right {
    		border-right-width: 0px;
    		margin-right: 0px;
    	}


    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="body">
    	<a href="#" class="collapse-right primary">This is</a>
    	<a href="#" class="collapse-right collapse-left click">A group</a>
    	<a href="#" class="collapse-left hover">Of Three</a>

    	<a href="#" class="">I am by myself</a>

    	<a href="#" class="collapse-right">We are</a>
    	<a href="#" class="collapse-left">a pair</a>

    </div>
</body>
</html>

a {
    border: 1px solid #939393;
    margin: 15px;
    padding: 8px;
    display: block;
    float: left;
}

<a href="#">First link</a><!--
--><a href="#">Second link</a><!--
--><a href="#">Third link</a>

<a href="#" class="collapse-right primary">This is</a
    ><a href="#" class="collapse-right collapse-left click">A group</a
    ><a href="#" class="collapse-left hover">Of Three</a>

<div class="body">
    <a href="#" class="collapse-right primary">This is</a
    ><a href="#" class="collapse-right collapse-left click">A group</a
    ><a href="#" class="collapse-left hover">Of Three</a>

    <!--alternate way.-->
    <a href="#" class="">I am by myself</a><
    a href="#" class="collapse-right">We are</a><
    a href="#" class="collapse-left">a pair</a>

</div>

<html>
<head>
    <style type="text/css">

		span.linkSet { border: 1px solid #939393; margin: 15px; padding: 8px }
		span.linkSet:hover {border-color: #111; }

    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="body">

        <span class="linkSet">
			<a href="#" >This is</a
			><a href="#" >A group</a
			><a href="#" >Of Three</a>
		</span>

		<span class="linkSet">
			<a href="#">I am by myself</a>
		</span>

		<span class="linkSet">
	        <a href="#" >We are</a
	        ><a href="#" >a pair</a>
		</span>

    </div>
</body>
</html>