Tea-table Talk-第1章

"On Thursday her place was occupied by a fat, red-headed girl, who replied to my look of inquiry with an idiotic laugh, and on Sunday Isearched the Hypatia House pews for her in vain.I learnt subsequently that she had been sent home on the previous Wednesday, suddenly.It appeared that I was not the only one.I left the letter where I had placed it, at the bottom of my desk, and in course of time forgot it.Years later I fell in love really.I sat down to write her a love-letter that should imprison her as by some subtle spell.I would weave into it the love of all the ages.When I had finished it, I read it through and was pleased with it.Then by an accident, as I was going to seal it, I overturned my desk, and on to the floor fell that other love-letter I had written seven years before, when a boy.Out of idle curiosity I tore it open; Ithought it would afford me amusement.I ended by posting it instead of the letter I had just completed.It carried precisely the same meaning; but it was better expressed, with greater sincerity, with more artistic simplicity.""After all," said the Philosopher, "what can a man do more than tell a woman that he loves her? All the rest is mere picturesque amplification, on a par with the 'Full and descriptive report from our Special Correspondent,' elaborated out of a three-line telegram of Reuter's.""Following that argument," said the Minor Poet, "you could reduce 'Romeo and Juliet' to a two-line tragedy -Lass and lad, loved like mad;