"
"Ah, I see! You want me to fall in love with a score of women first, so
that I may have a chance of choosing. Really, Annie, I had not thought
you would count that a great advantage. For my part, I have never once
been in love but with you, and I confess to a fancy that that might
almost prove a recommendation to you. But I suppose you will at least
allow it desirable that a man should love the girl he marries? If my
preference for you be a mere boyish fancy, as probably my mother is at
this moment trying to persuade my father, at what age do you suppose it
will please God to give me the heart of a man? My mother is sure to
prefer somebody not fit to stand in your dingiest cotton frock. Anybody
but you for my wife is a thing unthinkable. God would never degrade me
to any choice of my mother's! He knows you for the very best woman I
shall ever have the chance of marrying. Shall I tell you the sort of
woman my mother would like me to marry? Oh, I know the sort! First, she
must be tall and handsome, with red, fashionable hair, and cool, offhand
manners. She must never look shy or put out, or as if she did not know
what to say. On the contrary, she must know who's who, and what's what,
and never wear a dowdy bonnet, but always a stunning hat. And she must
have a father who can give her something handsome when she is married.
That's my mother's girl for me. I can't bear to look such a girl in the
face! She makes me ashamed of myself and of her.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47