12:02 AM
Work's been busy recently. I hope to have some time to relax soon. I suppose it's too much to hope people will stop breaking the rules. Alas.
Beata Maria, I have rested so confident in my virtue for so long. I have strove to be like the martyrs and remove myself from the world. I have forsaken pleasures of the flesh and the heresies of science even as the licentious in the palace and the square clamor for it. But I am called to shepherd them. I cannot look away.
And thus enters the Devil. Why then can I not shake the image of that dark-haired witch from my mind. Even when I close my eyes, I am ensnared by her serpentine gyrations, and tempted to think of most carnal sin.
O Blessed Virgin. Sustain me in suffering, fortify me in temptation, protect me in the dangers surrounding me, obtain for me the graces necessary to me, and allow to destroy them like a cleansing sword.
Those Godless tramps. Are they always so near to your campus?[Filtered to Quasimodo]
I have often warned you of how Godless and wicked the people of Novi Grad are, have I not, my sweet Quasimodo?
How delightful to see you wearing your own face, and amongst the washed and bejeweled, no less - for so long I've lamented that to have a glimpse of you, to share a word or pass a smile, I seem always to be obliged to slink into an alley or climb into a cave and seek out the foulest-looking pile of rags to shake you out of it. You ought to shave more often: it makes you easier to find. You ought to mingle more frequently with high society: it suits you.
Your grasp of the implications of the quarternions remains unsteady, but I confess it warms my heart to hear you speak of them. In my age I have perhaps developed too easy a sense of affection.
Do promise you won't disappear again into the - well, into wherever it is you disappear when you go away from me. (Do you exist, then? All of science says you do. I retain my doubts. Arithmetic, geometry, all these shabby mausoleums are crumbling. Who's to say there's a world at all? But, no; when I shut my eyes, you're there. That's a proof I'll happily rest my head on.)
Come for tea.
You most obedient servant, sir,
M.
How many marriages do you think we'll see this season? Or should I say how many successfully make it to the alter marriages do you think we'll see this season?
How may proposals?
How many unexplained deaths? I think we already have at least one.
How many public executions?
Did anyone order dozens of glass bottles?