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How to Write Love Letters : LETTER XXVIII. Warning a Young Lady against an Imprudent...

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LETTER XXVIII. Warning a Young Lady against an Imprudent...

12 King Street, November 6, 1913.
MR Dear Miss Kelly:

I have so much confidence in your good sense and discretion that I trust you will excuse me, as a very old friend, offering a few words of advice to you on a matter which may seriously affect the happiness of your whole life.

You are young and have been unhappily bereft of parental care for many years past. Under such circumstances you are exposed to temptations not only dangerous in themselves, but the more so in proportion as your innocence of heart renders you open and unsuspecting in your opinion of others.

Report seems to speak of Mr. Cornelius Breen as your accepted lover, or at all events as having paid you of late many attentions, which appear to have been favorably received. I sincerely hope, my dear Miss Eileen that you will not feel offended at this voluntary advice from one who from long knowledge entertains a father's feeling, almost a father's anxiety, on your behalf.

I have long had my eye upon young Breen's doings, and I am convinced that without saying anything unduly harsh he is not calculated to make any wife happy. He is violent and unrestrained in his temper, extravagant in his habits and by no means particular as to the society he keeps. Believe me, my dear child, you never could be happy with such a man. Your life would be one of incessant suffering; you would find a tyrant to whom you had enslaved yourself, not a protector and friend on whom your weakness should depend for support; you would perhaps find yourself neglected and forgotten when the fleeting charms of youth and beauty had departed, and you would find yourself the victim of a man whose whole object is immediate gratification, but whose want of stability and decision of character totally incapacitates him from looking forward to the serious duties of the future. Think well of this, my dear girl, and do not commit yourself by rashly encouraging the advances of a young man of so doubtful 8 disposition. Reflect upon the happy life your own parents enjoyed, and depend upon it you will find that affection unaccompanied by esteem is no incentive to linking your destinies with those of another.

And now, my dear girl, I close this long and it may seem tedious lecture, trusting that God may lead you to weigh anxiously and carefully the consequences of so serious a step; and that your own heart may be your truest and soundest adviser, is the sincere prayer of, Your affectionate guardian,

F. X. Monahan.

To Miss Eileen Kelly.

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