ESL Blogs

Love stories are always nice to share (if they have a happy ending, ofc)  This is a very ingenious real story of a love letter written in the 1850’s.
—Warning to lazy readers: You have to read a lil bit, but I assure you it’s gonna be a very interesting reading. So don’t be lazy and give it a try! :P

This is the situation: A young man was trying to court the daughter of a very protective father. Knowing that the letter he wanted to write to his beloved one had to pass a hard parental decency test, the young man cleverly encrypted his love letter so it could be read two ways: 1) line by line, as the unsuspecting father would, which makes the text look like a love rejection, 2) or by skipping over all even-numbered lines and reading only the odd lines, where you can read the real 'hidden-to father's-censorship' message: a passionate declaration of love:

MADAM,

The great love and tenderness I have hitherto expressed for you
is false, and I now feel that my indifference towards you
incresease proportionably every day, and the more I see you
the more I appear ridiculous, and an object of contempt, and
the more I feel disposed, inclined, and finally determined, to
hate you. Believe me I never had the least inclination to
offer  you my hand and heart. Our last conversation has
I assure you, left a wretched insipidity, which has by no means
possessed me with the most exalted opinion of your character.
Yes, madam, and you will much oblige me, by avoiding me.
And if ever we are united, I shall experience nothing but the
fearful hatred of my parents, added to an everlasting dis-
pleasure of living with you. Yes, madam, I think sincerely.
You need not put yourself to the smallest trouble or send or
write me an answer –Adieu. And believe that I am
so averse to you, that it is really impossible I should ever be,
Madam,
Your affectionate lover till death.

Clever guy! right? :D

I hope you liked the story.
Thanks for reading!