My gentle Trothe, I know the ardent feel...

My gentle Trothe, I know the ardent feelings that burn in a young girl’s heart. One of the advantages of being an older gentleman is that, unique amongst God’s creatures, we have an endless capacity for what the learned call empathetic projection. I know what you think you feel, but let me assure you - you are wrong. Your bitterness at being forced to marry against your heart will, as the gentle river of time shapes even the sharpest rock to a smooth pebble, be turned to sweetness, or at the least abject resignation. A marriage is not merely a duty, it is also a prodigious burden, but like all such burdens, as the years pass, it seems more bearable by familiarity. You will feel yourself shaped by it, molded to it until you cannot imagine your life before such a thing.

(beat)

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