Poor Alicia (IP)

Poor Alicia was beauty personified but the
world of men was too greedy and grasping to
let something of such beauty survive.

Her hair was not just blonde but pure gold and it shimmered brightly in the sun. Her eyes were not just blue but radiant, flawless sapphires of a rare shade of blue and her teeth were not just pure white and lustrous but pearls of the highest quality.

None who had ever seen Alicia and who loved true beauty could fail to fall in love with her,such
were the depths of her perfection.

But then one day, I went to call upon Alicia and admire that great and rare beauty of hers and was greeted instead by a great and terrible scene of tragedy.

For, in the night, three men had come. A goldsmith, a gem merchant and a trader in precious pearls.

The first man, the goldsmith lusted so to own her pure golden hair that he had cut it all off and the second man, the gem merchant, had longed so much to own her precious gem stone eyes that he had pulled them out and left poor Alicia blind, then the third man, with the help of a pair of dental pliers had removed all her lustrous pearl teeth.

Now all her rare beauty was gone and all that was left was a poor, terrified, weeping girl.

“There is something left that men cannot remove so easily”, I said to her, “More precious than gold or sapphires or pearls and that is the love in your heart Alicia and for that I love you still”.

And so I married poor Alicia and bought her gold and jewels and pearl necklaces but she gave them all back to me and said, “All I want from you is your most precious love” and that I gave her happily in vast amounts feeling like the richest
man in the world.