I shall keep cool. I am not going to make a
fool of myself by proposing."
"Oh, you aren't? We shall see. But she'll refuse you, and then you'll
come to your senses."
"I'm deusedly afraid she would accept me."
"The vanity of mankind! Don't tell me that women are vain. Every man
thinks himself irresistible,--that he has only to call, to have the
women come round him like colts around a farmer with a measure of corn.
Shake the kernels in your dish, and cry, 'Kerjock!' Perhaps she _will_
come."
"I suppose you think, with Hosea Bigelow, that
"''Ta'n't a knowin' kind o' cattle
That is ketched with mouldy corn.'"
"I needn't tell you that Marcia Sandford is knowing,--too knowing to
let an enthusiastic lover relapse into a humdrum husband. You amuse her
now: for she likes to enjoy poetry and sentiment, dances, rides, and
rambles, in company with a man of fresh susceptibilities;--a good
phrase that, 'fresh susceptibilities.'--The instant you become serious
and ask her to marry you, the dream is over; she will hate you."
"Well, what is to become of a lady like this,--a creature you think too
bright, if not too good, for human nature's daily food?"
"An easy prophecy.
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