Hmmm, well of course I always knew us paladins were a strange lot, anyway, but it does the heart good to know that there are some that have fallen as far as I have myself from grace. Ahem.
*swats off a few pallies buzzing around her*
Straton, I can't resist but to comment on yer comments, lad ...
1. Perhaps it isn't always what a woman wants to hear. Maybe she has already heard how her face is the light that keeps the world going, how her eyes are stars and how the universe bows down before her. She is Woman. She therefore knows all these things. It's very flattering and poetic, but the problem with most pallies is that they never know when to shut up and just buy a girl a drink.
2. Swooning and sighing and yearning don't do an awful lot to continue the Paladin strain. Actions do, however. Why do you think there's so many armsmen running about?
3. Heh! Alas, though, I rarely see paladins inside the taverns, so those poor innkeepers can't be doing that well ...
4. Hey, I never sent anyone out to reclaim kingdoms or anything? No, these were vows to the Church that I mentioned. Once upon a time, I had a fiance, a paladin lad. He made vows. His conscience, or something, brought him to leave me just before the wedding-day, some church vow or other changing his mind. Now, what red-blooded man would let a church vow dissuade him away from finding God wi' the lady of his dreams, eh?
A curse on all vows, say I.
Anyways, it left me able to carry out a bit of research .... ummmm ....
5. Ach, there's boredom, and there's impenetrable frustration. Does that far-away look in his eye mean that he's going to come out with a poetic couplet, or that he's contemplating God, or wondering what to have for dinner, or that he's going to fart (never good within plate armour, hmmm that's another point about plate-wearers, actually, occasionally it's not all too pleasant when they disrobe. Before you turn that back at me, ladies don't fart, so there)?
6. Shhhhh, don't tell us. It's far too fun doing the corrupting. Don't spoil it.
However, some of you are quite sweet, really ....
*grins*