So, I have come to the brink and plung’d forth into the unknown. Lit­tle did I know – though it were sus­pect – that I should find in this great city of Philadel­phia a com­pan­ion with whom I might wish to spend the term of my life. A cer­tain Miss Yad­losky has invaded my blood like some potent liquor, blurred the bound­aries of sense, and arrested my heart. I have known the young woman – though she is two years my senior – for nine months and have come to expect rom her an almost eerie par­al­lel of char­ac­ter. Now, by no means, are we iden­ti­cal in nature – that might prove dis­as­trous – how­ever, there is a gen­eral cor­re­spon­dance of inter­est & taste, as well as a mutu­ally ben­e­fi­cial com­ple­ment of character.

For instance, I am a hor­ri­bly cyn­i­cal mal­con­tent, who is always crit­i­cis­ing the world’s var­i­ous defi­cien­cies with a sneer & bit­ing remark. I’m intol­er­ant, ran­corous, and ironic; aloof, seper­ate, and splenetic. She – on the other hand – is kind, com­pas­sion­ate, tol­er­ant and open-​minded. Whilst this might seem to cause more con­flict than pro­vide tran­quil­ity, it serves us for our bet­ter. She tem­pers my cyn­i­cism with her warmth and affec­tion; and I pro­vide cold, unfeel­ing Rea­son where it is needed and appropriate.

We have spent the past two weeks together and already we are daft for each other. I am find­ing the emo­tion pleas­ant enough, though I have encoun­tered it at exactly that point in my life when I am most con­vinced that I should remain a bach­e­lor well into my eight­ies, not to men­tion that I have been enter­tain­ing a cer­tain call to the priest­hood. Recent months have brought that enter­tain­ment into full per­spec­tive and I have con­sid­ered hard this calling.

I am no longer con­vinced that there is surety in it. I am no longer con­vinced that it is indeed the direc­tion that I am intended to take. I have learnt in the past months to love again, to scorn the hate that had been brew­ing in my soul since I was crip­pled in the early part of this year. I was dis­fig­ured by ani­mus and am now find­ing that I can tol­er­ate peo­ple again. I no longer see them as the refuse of hell, which is an uncomely enough image to be sure.

I find that I now take a real delight in Chil­dren and in the com­pany of Women – or a Woman, to be pre­cise – realms that I once-​upon-​a-​time vowed never to plumb. I am hap­pier than I have been in months – per­haps years – and I look for­ward to a bright future.

There are mat­ters to be con­sid­ered, yes, but it is unlikely that the future does not hold at least the prospect of mat­ri­mony. I ask every­one for their bless­ing and pray God for the fur­ther­ance of this new­found love.

Yr. Most Hum­ble & Obt. Svt.,
Adam Mitchell Bernard Bond