Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, No. 86, February, 1875

me to marry betimes. "Marry early in life, my dear Cha

With the simplicity inseparable from great natures, I did not value the treasures I possessed. I was as the poet before he has touched his lyre-as the sculptor ere he has found his marble. Since then the years have brought knowledge. My eyes have been opened by the actions of tho

task which requires from most men some six weeks' or three months' time, perhaps a few moments snatched from business or a few evenings of ball-roo

I could make my first bow at an introduction. At first I blamed the poets-thought they had been mistaken-had not studied human nature; but the truth gradually dawned upon me. The fault was mine! The imagination of man had not been able to create a hero of fiction like myself: in fact, had authorsh

conquests: I know how impossible it is for the poor dears

g her somewhere. I went to all the popular summer-resorts in turn, meeting only disappointment. The star type of girls did not seem to be the mode that season: I could see no trace of her I came to find. Though saddened, I was too young to despair: in my usual clear and sensible manner I thought the matter over. After all, I ref

o be content with an equal. If with her I should not be ecstatically happy-if our ménage would not quite rival that of Adam and Eve in the garden of Paradise-yet a certa

de in the afternoon. She told me-Miss Vernon, you know her? brunette, deuced pretty-she said one day, when we were taking a canter together, "I can believe those wonderful stories of the Centaurs when I see you ride, Mr. Highrank." She had a pleasant voice, and such a figure! I had almost decided to propose to her one day, and was even thinking of the words I should use, when the pale Miss Anabel Lee came walking along the road by us, looking like a fairy, her hat hanging on her arm filled with wild flowers, and her dress looped with ferns. As she passed she raised her beautiful blue eyes to mine, and at the same time-it might have been chance-she pressed a bunch of forget-me-nots to her lips. I remembered I had an engagement to walk with Miss Lee on the beach that night: there was a lovely moon-we

a less perfect man; nor could I decide in which of my pursuits I needed sympathy the most-music, painting, dancing, riding, reading. Alas! could I find one woman congenial in all my moods I would marry

many may consider it odd that I did not find it so. I do not wish to offend. To those who hold that opinion I modestl

cles were beginning to dishearten me, but even after a second failure I dared not relinquish my quest: my mother'

plunge into the country and seek a bride fresh from the hands of Nature, a wild flower without fashion, guile or brains-one who in

e had often invited me to visit him in the country. I counted on doing enough love-making in that time to win my wild rose, and at my return I would bring home my bride. I reasoned that in those unsophist

announce to my gentleman friends the joyful event. At the

ves at The Beauties!" mumbled Percy

in-about a month or six weeks." I remembered just in time t

ns, exclamations a

vel

as poet's

Ver

for

Sop

e of m

abe

N

is

e, getting thirsty, and fearing in the e

about her," c

the noise had slightly abated, "y

ear!" th

are!" sa

ng to get a deu

ate you, o

ing up in a balloon

ith me, and drank my health, her health, the health of my mother-in-law

chaps?" asked Percy in a plaint

ving my hand, "my wife t

stay in heaven!"

an angel is a

the wits had nicknamed him "Perce sans purse," because

n, let me

r! h

past year: I have thought much on the su

d Perce out of

d, gentle, kind, loving, beautiful

st clause!" cri

sently watching the sparkling bubbles

answered, evading the question-

on her," said Bear

I sat down with a tremor in my voi

should not have believed it if you had not told us yourself. To go and get married like

ple must set an example-the world expects it of us.

hat there was much noise from popping corks, and occasionally a breakage of glass, and I thi

mind. Once seated in the cars, I looked with pleasure on each pastoral scene as it came into view, and gazed at the milkmaids while thinking

th the ringing of Sunday bells, caused my drowsy eyes to open on the morrow. A happy thought came to me as I lay enjoying the delightful freshness of all around me: "I will go to ch

not my rose herself," I thought, "it maybe some relation-cousin, sister, friend: I am interested in the whole town since she lives here." The girls came nearer. They walked without affectation: you could imagine that the spirit of Modes

see him?"

y lovely!" s

he is?" rema

muttered as I

aking a reconnoissance of the town, I came to a pretty house w

hought I, for I could see without appearing to

ho can he be?" said the slen

tell me the way to Mr. Hearty's?" I asked, not t

g, she

her as a person who might be my future wife-"

you like," she

you gave me on

kly plucked a bud from the side of the

my Rose late

of mossy gray stone, and seated myself on a shady b

of a new silk that I would have taken the odds she was wearing for the first time. She looked as if she were saying with every rustle, "Admire me!" though of course she wasn't, you know. She was constantly arranging her bracelet or smoothing her glove, and looking on this side and that to see if any one was observing her. By this means she gave her admirers the benefit of her

w the ghost of "the Soprano" at the head of the choir, with less voice and more affectation. The same glances of envy that had been shot from angry eyes at

d "stuck up" by the townspeople, being the daughter of a retired grocer. During the service they all looked at me. Some who were of the Loude school did it openly: those after the Weighty pattern peeped clandestinely over their prayer-books, thr

ed: "'tis the same everywhere, unless I shoul

vice and spoke to me. "Looking well, old fellow!" he said, as if I

isagreeable, not thinking it right to disappoint them, being a friend of the brother, and all that. But unless I wear a mask I cannot

h him at once. I already began to fear for the success of my object, but coul

med as if the struggle consisted in seeing who should be first at my feet. I averaged half a dozen conquests daily: Dick's house was overwhelmed with lady visitors, and it was usually love at first sight with them all. A second interview was sufficient to win the most intractabl

while, and took her to a spring that was just in sight of the dancing platform, thinking she would be too timid to go far away from the others. I found her very sweet and bashful: I could desire nothing more so. She blushed

iews," she said shyly

t happy to see

e civil. Two hours of such silent torture man never underwent before, and yet when we returned tired, with the perspiration rolling down our faces, I actually overheard her tell one of her companions that it had been "a delightful walk, I was so agreeabl

arley, you are so stunning in that velvet c

I would take it off in a minute if I thought it was." Then I added with a burst of confidence, "Dick, 'tis

dous slap on my back, as if I had said something ve

The task bored me far more than my sympathizers did in the summer. Indeed, any of those friends were bewitching in contrast to the girls I now met, and had one of them dropped in on me during

ht they knew all about the weather and religion, politics and farming; the women were convinced they had every kind of knowledge worth having, and that what they did not know was "new-fangled"

raceful; that the useful and the beautiful are not likely to be found in the same person; and that girls, like articles de luxe, should be carefully kept. I like to recall that well-bred, uncons

the trouble of seeking one. Give me a full-blown damask rose. What care I if it was nursed in a hot-house or if its beauty is due to the gardener's care? I thank the gardener and take the rose. Or give me a half-open sul