Not that I am less capable of sympathizing with you now than ever, not
that I am less your friend than ever, but because I hope and believe that
your present anxiety and distress about her health and her life must and
will forever banish those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt
as to the truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever
be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent
your present affliction expressly for that object), surely nothing can
come in their stead to fill their immeasurable measure of misery. The
death-scenes of those we love are surely painful enough; but these we are
prepared for and expect to see: they happen to all, and all know they
must happen. Painful as they are, they are not an unlooked for sorrow.
Should she, as you fear, be destined to an early grave, it is indeed a
great consolation to know that she is so well prepared to meet it. Her
religion, which you once disliked so much, I will venture you now prize
most highly. But I hope your melancholy bodings as to her early death
are not well founded.
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