hotels is female entanglements--mendacious, unwifely, and for him
unavailing.

Through divers channels some of my fellow-creatures--specimens of the
most dreadful prose--have let me know that upon marrying I shall
forfeit their usurious regard. As to them, I shall relapse into the
privacy of an orchard that has been plucked of its fruit. But my
wonderment has grown on the other hand at the number of those to whom,
as the significant unit of a family instead of a bachelor zero, I have
now acquired a sterling mercantile valuation. Upon the whole, I may
fairly compute that my relation to the human race has been totally
changed by the little I may cease to give away and by the less that I
shall need to buy.

And Mrs. Walters! Although I prefer to think of Mrs. Walters as a
singer, owing to her unaccountable powers of reminiscential
vocalization, I have upon occasion classified her among the waders; and
certainly, upon the day when my engagement to Georgiana transpired, she
waded not only all around the town but all over it, sustained by a
buoyancy of spirit that enabled her to keep her head above water in
depths where her feet no longer touched the bottom.

It was the crowning triumph of this vacant soul's life to boast that
she had made this match; and for the sake of giving her so much
happiness, I think I should have been willing to marry Georgiana
whether I loved her or not.

So we are all happy: Sylvia, who thus enters upon a family right to my
flowers and to the distinction of being the only Miss Cobb; Dilsy, who,
while gathering vegetables about the garden, long ago began to receive