"It is Easy to Forgive When One Loves"

From Katy's journal entry dated June 2, 1835 in the book Stepping Heavenward. Her report on this important conversation  between herself and Dr. Ernest Elliott immediately after she had been rude to him in some comments:

Another pained, disappointed look made me begin to recollect myself. I was sorry, oh! so sorry, for my anger and rudeness. I ran after him into the hall, my eyes full of tears, holding out both hands, which he took in both of his.

"Don't go until you have forgiven me for being so angry!" I cried. "Indeed, Dr. Elliott, though you may not be able to believe it, I am trying to do right all the time!"

"I do believe it," he said earnestly.

"Then tell me that you forgive me!"

"If I once begin, I shall be tempted to tell something else," he said, looking me through and through with those great dusky eyes. "And I will tell it," he went on, his grasp on my hands growing firmer. "It is easy to forgive when one loves." I pulled my hands away and burst out crying again.

"Oh, Dr. Elliott, this is dreadful!" I said. "You do not, you cannot love me! You are so much older than I am! So grave and silent! You are not in earnest!

"I am only too much so," he said and went quietly out.

[Ernest and Katy were married on January 16, 1837. :)]