I am
slow, _very_ slow, to believe the protestations of another; I know my
own sentiments, I can read my own mind, but the minds of the rest of
man and woman kind are to me sealed volumes, hieroglyphical scrolls,
which I cannot easily either unseal or decipher. Yet time, careful
study, long acquaintance, overcome most difficulties; and, in your
case, I think they have succeeded well in bringing to light and
construing that hidden language, whose turnings, windings,
inconsistencies, and obscurities, so frequently baffle the researches
of the honest observer of human nature . . . I am truly grateful for
your mindfulness of so obscure a person as myself, and I hope the
pleasure is not altogether selfish; I trust it is partly derived from
the consciousness that my friend's character is of a higher, a more
steadfast order than I was once perfectly aware of. Few girls would
have done as you have done--would have beheld the glare, and glitter,
and dazzling display of London with dispositions so unchanged, heart
so uncontaminated. I see no affectation in your letters, no trifling,
no frivolous contempt of plain, and weak admiration of showy persons
and things."
In these days of cheap railway trips, we may smile at the idea of a short
visit to London having any great effect upon the character, whatever it
may have upon the intellect.
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