Explore "Doctor Thorne" by Anthony Trollope on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It will not be imagined, at any rate by feminine readers, that Mary's letter was written off at once, without alterations and changes, or the necessity for a fair copy. Letters from one young lady to another are doubtless written in this manner, and even with them it might sometimes be better if more patience had been taken; but with Mary's first letter to her lover -- her first love-letter, if love-letter it can be called -- much more care was used. It was copied and recopied, and when she returned from posting it, it was read and reread.
"It is very cold," she said to herself; "he will think I have no heart, that I have never loved him! " And then she all but resolved to run down to the baker's wife, and get back her letter, that she might alter it. "But it will be better so," she said again. "If I touched his feelings now, he would never bring himself to leave me. It is right that I should be cold to him. I should be false to myself if I tried to move his love -- I, who have nothing to give him in return for it. " And so she made no further visit to the post-office, and the letter went on its way.