Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/320

318 only love-letter I ever read without thinking it absurd. It is equally passionate and natural." Edward Lorraine.—"What is the reason, that in repeating the expressions of lovers they always seem exaggerated, though, perhaps, we have used the same expressions ourselves?—surely memory ought to recall their truth." Mr. Morland.—"And so it would, if those expressions were still used to or by ourselves. They only appear to be exaggerated from being put in the third person. It is curious how much people take for granted in these affairs of the heart." Edward Lorraine.—"Nothing, in matters of sentiment, seems too difficult for credit." Mr. Morland.—"We easily believe in the feelings ourselves inspire; but, instead of a reason, I will tell you a story. I had a housekeeper who had two lovers—one the favoured, to whom she was engaged. After a while she learnt he had a wife and two children at Paisley; this led to a dismissal. She went into hysterics, and spoilt my soup for a week, at the end of which she consoled herself with the other. Just as she was on the point of marriage, it came out that the wife and two children was an invention of the intended, to