You will not say
that three months from now, I will venture. When your nerves once get
steady now, the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you
become impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. Again
you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed so
much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it
will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no doubt
that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of
Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. Far short
of your dreams as you may be, no woman could do more to realize them than
that same black-eyed Fanny. If you could but contemplate her through my
imagination, it would appear ridiculous to you that any one should for a
moment think of being unhappy with her. My old father used to have a
saying that "If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter"; and it
occurs to me that if the bargain you have just closed can possibly be
called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one for applying that
maxim to which my fancy can by any effort picture.
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