When the day comes to make his declarations--which generally should be
contrived in some shady garden-walk while the company is at a
distance--it should be quickly followed by anger, which is shown by our
blushing, and which, for a while, banishes the lover from our presence.
He finds afterwards means to pacify us, to accustom us gradually to hear
him depict his passion, and to draw from us that confession which causes
us so much pain. After that come the adventures, the rivals who thwart
mutual inclination, the persecutions of fathers, the jealousies arising
without any foundation, complaints, despair, running away with, and its
consequences. Thus things are carried on in fashionable life, and
veritable gallantry cannot dispense with these forms. But to come out
point-blank with a proposal of marriage,--to make no love but with a
marriage-contract, and begin a novel at the wrong end! Once more,
father, nothing can be more tradesmanlike, and the mere thought of it
makes me sick at heart.
GORG. What deuced nonsense is all this? That is highflown language with
a vengeance!
CAT. Indeed, uncle, my cousin hits the nail on the head. How can we
receive kindly those who are so awkward in gallantry. I could lay a
wager they have not even seen a map of the country of _Tenderness_, and
that _Love-letters_, _Trifling attentions_, _Polite epistles_, and
_Sprightly verses_, are regions to them unknown.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33