“To my unsuspecting love.
When I look into your eyes, I lose all sense of time and place. Reason robbed, clear thought erased, I am lost in the paradise I find within your gaze.
I long to touch your blushing cheek, to whisper in your ear how I adore you, how I have lost my heart to you, how I cannot bear the thought of living without you.
To be so near to you without touching you is agony. Your blindness to my feelings is a daily torment, and I feel driven to the edge of madness by my love for you.
Where is your compassion when I need it most? Open your eyes , Love, and see what is right before you: that I am not merely a friend, but a man deeply, desperately , in love with you.
Longing for you.”
“I hope you do not let anyone else's expectations direct the course of your life.”
“Dear Philip,
I don't imagine you will ever read this. If you do, it is bacause something dreadful has happened to me. I find myself in the hands of a dangerous man. I am determined to fight him but before I do, my heart demands that I write this note to tell you that I love you. I am sending my heart to you in this letter so it will be kept safe from whatever may happen to me tonight. I don't know if you want it or not, but it has always been yours.
With all my love,
Marianne”
“Did you need something?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said, reaching out and taking my hand. My heart thumped hard at his touch. I told myself I should pull my hand away, but I couldn't make myself do it.
'What did you need?' My voice was little more than a whisper.
'Your smile. I haven't seen it all day.”
“You stole my heart the night we met, when you sang that ridiculous song and dared me not to laugh. and every moment I have spent with you since then, you have stolen more and more of me until when you're not with me..." He drew in a breath. "When you are not with me, I am left with nothing but longing for you.”
“Isn't that what a gentleman does? Rescues a damsel in distress?”
“There's something solid and constant about trees." I said quietly. "They may change through the seasons, but they're always there. They're dependable.”
“When you are not with me, I am left with nothing but longing for you.”
“I looked at the titles on the bookshelf and found a book on Greek mythology next to a book of poetry, which was flanked by a book on German philosophy. "How are these organized?"
"They're not."
I turned to him. "How do you find anything? There must be thousands of books here."
"I like the search. It's like visiting old friends.”
“Don't think because I tease you that I don't take you seriously.”
“Philip stood with the tip of a sword pressed into Mr. Beaufort’s throat. I saw another sword on the floor. Neither gentleman looked toward the door. Philip looked perfectly in control, his sword bending the skin of Mr. Beaufort’s neck without piercing it. When he spoke, though, his voice sounded so fierce I hardly recognized it. “Tell me what you did to her.”
“I made sure you wouldn’t want her anymore.”
“I will always want her,” Philip said in a quiet, furious voice. “Always! There is nothing you could do to change that.”
Mr. Beaufort sneered. “Then why do you want to know?”
“Because I would never make her say the words. And because I want to know how much I should enjoy running you through.”
“There was no escape from being unwanted. And that was the truth that struck at me the most deeply.”
“-Hardly knowing what i was doing, i began to hit the table with one hand as i sang in a low voice. Big cows" -thump- "lumps of meat" -thump. His widened. "Give me milk" -thump- "warm and sweet."
I stopped abruptly, pressing my lips together as I realized what I had just sung. The ridiculousness of it struck me forcibly and I knew I could not goon without laughing. We stared at each other,locked in a stalemate, his eyes brimming with laughter, his lips trembling. My chin quivered. Against my will, a sound burst from me. It was a very unladylike snort.-”
“Philip: "You are even more beautiful when you're angry"
Marianne: "Don't be absurd"
Philip: "I'm not"
Philip: "You should see yourself, with that flash of fire in your eyes. And when you press your lips together like that, a dimple appears in your left cheek, right next to your mouth. I find it... maddening”
“I have discovered happiness in being true to who I am. I hope you will give that idea some consideration.”
“I promise, Marianne Daventry," he began.
"I promise that I do not love you for your money”
“I could be myself and be loved deeply.”
“You are bright and fun and delightfully unexpected. You are brave and compassionate and selfless. And you are lovely beyond measure. I want you, all of you, just the way you are." He drew in a breath. "If you will have me.”
“I reread my grandmother's letter and realized with a deep sense of contentment that I had not had to change at all in order to have every hope for happiness in life. I had not had to learn to sing for company or to behave like Cecily or to stop twirling. I could be myself and be loved deeply. I was, in fact, a lot like Meg, who had always been a racehorse, I just hadn't known it.”
“How do you like her?" Philip asked, nodding toward Meg.
"She's perfect." And she really was. "Just spirited enough to keep it interesting without being difficult to manage. And so beautiful." I patted her neck and flashed him a smile. "A gentle mare would have never been able to keep up with you."
He smiled, too, but as if at a private thought. "You are absolutely right.”
“If I leaned toward him, something would happen. I was sure of it. But if I leaned away, nothing would happen. So I stayed perfectly still, balanced between something and nothing, not knowing which way I wanted to fall.”
“To my unsuspecting love.
When I look into your eyes, I loose all sense of time and place. Reason robbed, clear thought erased, I am lost in the paradise I find within you gaze.
I long to touch your blushing cheek, to whisper in your ear how I adore you, how I cannot bear the thought of living without you.
To be so near you without touching you is agony. Your blindness to my feelings is a daily torment, and I feel driven to the edge of madness by my love for you”
“I will always want her," Philip said in a quiet, furious voice. "Always! There is nothing you could do to change that.”
“My heart would obey me, I was certain. I simply needed to be strict with it.”
“But this was one contest he would not win. For I had painted my heart into that picture, and I would not let him have it.”
“My heart swelled until I felt as if it might take over my entire being. I had landed in heaven. This was heaven.”
“I had to be different... so I would not be inferior. We could not occupy the same space together. Like horses in a race, I was tired of jostling for position and losing. I chose a different course so that losing would not be an option.”
“We both stood there, as if on the brink of a cliff, and I didn't know if I moved if I would fall to hell or soar to heaven.”
“It is so refreshing to be treated with contempt.”
“I don't think I have ever met a lady like you, Miss Marianne Daventry, and I would feel very sorry to forget anything about this evening”
“I mean, was there really a difference between death and losing every ounce of who you are?”
“Please. Alex, i'm begging you...forty-eight hours? Tell me you'll stay.”
“Maybe thats why they hate us.For reminding them that innocence is just an illusion, we're dark and maggoty all the way down tp the bone.Everyone of us.”
“This process of assimilation, which takes place in depth, requires a state of relaxation that is becoming rarer and rarer. If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away. His nesting places - the activities that are intimately associated with boredom - are already extinct in the cities and are declining in the country as well. With this the gift for listening is lost and the community of listeners disappears. For storytelling is always the art of repeated stories, and this art is lost when the stories are no longer retained.”
“May we all be doomed to a happy life.”
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