A week ago I considered you as an enemy with active designs on the peace
of my daughter. I was about to write you a letter to demand that you
should cease from troubling her. But I heard you were going to Europe,
and then I felt that henceforth our paths would be smoother, for I
believed that absence would cure you of your absurd and objectless
infatuation; but suddenly, down goes the House of Martha, and up comes
the enemy, transformed into a suitor, who is loved by Sylvia, and
against whom I can have no possible objection. Now can not you see for
yourself how this sort of thing must affect a mind accustomed to a
certain uniformity of emotion?"
"Madam," said I, "it will be the object of my life to make you so happy
in our happiness that you shall remember this recent tumult of events as
something more gratifying to look back upon than your most cherished
memories of tranquil delight."
"You seem to have a high opinion of your abilities," she said, smiling,
"and of the value of what you offer me. I am perfectly willing that you
try what you can do; nevertheless I wish you had gone to Europe.
Everything would have turned out just the same, and the affair would
have been more seemly."
"Oh, we can easily make that all right," said I.
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