'Dr. Sir. Poets tell us that love is blind ? I fear indifference is more so. It is many months since I sent you a slight gage d?amour; it is many years (do not be alarmed, I am still very young) since I first became acquainted with your worth and excellence. I have seen you ? met you ? read your works ? heard you speak ? listened, in a breathless state, to your eloquent and manly expression of the sentiments which you do honor; and still by no word or sign have I discovered that you recognized in me the giver of the simple worthless riding whip which I have often seen in your hand, and once (when you [ ] it) nearly touched.'