Do let me hear from you soon to confirm your love and faithfulness, as I do now confirm mine for you. So I entreat you to join me in this belief, my dearest, fairest Catherine. But I dare not say more on that subject here. I also believe that the reward – the deep satisfaction we may expect to find in our marriage – will be well worth waiting for.

I can even be patient if necessary, because I am convinced that, with right on our side, we will prevail in the end, you and I. If my father will be obstinate in his position, I will hold even more tenaciously to mine. I refuse to be reasonable if being reasonable means I must consign myself to a world where the contrariness of one stubborn gentleman should overrule all that is good, right, and fitting. Although there currently seems no reasonable basis for hope of an early solution, I remain ever hopeful. I find it is difficult to speak lightly when my heart is heavy.Īnd yet I do not despair at our situation. But I find that I am, after all, capable of much more serious reflections when hard pressed, as I now am by this separation. You have been used to hearing only lightness and teasing from me, only joviality and laughter. You have captured me altogether, and I ache with longing until our union can at last be made complete.ĭo I shock you, my darling, by the force of my affection, with the strength of these sentiments? Indeed, I shock myself. In truth, there never was and never will be another. In these three seats of my affection, there is no one but you, Catherine. May I presume to call you mine, though I cannot yet fully possess you? I dare to hope that I may, for when I look into my mind, into my heart, and into my imagination, I find you already resident there, a warm and vital part of me. It is a letter from Henry Tilney to Catherine Morland.

This print features a quote from Jane Austen’s popular novel, Northanger Abbey.

Tilney austen