Making every allowance for a lover's blindness, I still
have no doubt that the lady herself is a well-conducted and amiable
young person, who would not disgrace our family, but were she ten
times more desirable as a daughter-in-law than I can allow myself to
hope, your joint poverty is an insuperable objection to your marriage.
I have four other children besides yourself, and my expenses do not
permit me to save money. This year they have been especially heavy,
indeed I have had to purchase two not inconsiderable pieces of land
which happened to come into the market and were necessary to
complete a property which I have long wanted to round off in this way.
I gave you an education regardless of expense, which has put you in
possession of a comfortable income, at an age when many young men
are dependent. I have I have thus started you fairly in life, and
may claim that you should cease to be a drag upon me further. Long
engagements are proverbially unsatisfactory, and in the present case
the prospect seems interminable. What interest, pray, do you suppose I
have that I could get a living for you? Can I go up and down the
country begging people to provide for my son because he has taken it
into his head to want to get married without sufficient means?
"I do not wish to write unkindly, nothing can be farther from my
real feelings towards you, but there is often more kindness in plain
speaking than in any amount of soft words which can end in no
substantial performance.
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