However much I loved you, dear, Once used to you … I’d cease, I fear You’d start to weep, but all your crying Would fail to touch my heart at all, Your tears in fact would only gall.

Believe me (conscience be your token): In wedlock we would both be broken.

I’ll say without wrought-up insistence That, finding my ideal in you, I would have asked you-yes, it’s true- To share my baneful, sad existence, In pledge of beauty and of good, And been as happy … as I could! 14 ’But I’m not made for exaltation: My soul’s a stranger to its call Your virtues are a vain temptation, For I’m not worthy of them all. 13 ’Had I in any way desired To bind with family ties my life Or had a happy fate required That I turn father, take a wife Had pictures of domestication For but one moment held temptation- Then, surely, none but you alone Would be the bride I’d make my own.

But I’ve no wish to praise you now Let me repay you with a vow As artless as the one you tendered Hear my confession too, I plead, And judge me both by word and deed. Your candour has a great appeal And stirs in me, I won’t conceal, Long dormant feelings, scarce remembered. I’ve read your words and they evoke My deep respect for your emotion, Your trusting soul… and sweet devotion.

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