from his fondness for the society of women, from his interest in the
matrimonial projects of his friends and the gossip which has feminine
attractions for its food, or from his letters to those who had his
confidence. In a letter written from Birmingham, England, March 15,
1816, to his dear friend Henry Brevoort, who was permitted more than
perhaps any other person to see his secret heart, he alludes, with
gratification, to the report of the engagement of James Paulding, and
then says:--

"It is what we must all come to at last. I see you are hankering
after it, and I confess I have done so for a long time past. We
are, however, past that period [Irving was thirty-two] when a man
marries suddenly and inconsiderately. We may be longer making a
choice, and consulting the convenience and concurrence of easy
circumstances, but we shall both come to it sooner or later. I
therefore recommend you to marry without delay. You have sufficient
means, connected with your knowledge and habits of business, to
support a genteel establishment, and I am certain that as soon as
you are married you will experience a change in your ideas. All
those vagabond, roving propensities will cease. They are the
offspring of idleness of mind and a want of something to fix the
feelings. You are like a bark without an anchor, that drifts about
at the mercy of every vagrant breeze or trifling eddy. Get a wife,
and she'll anchor you. But don't marry a fool because she has a
pretty face, and don't seek after a great belle. Get such a girl as
Mary ----, or get her if you can; though I am afraid she has still
an unlucky kindness for poor ----, which will stand in the way of
her fortunes. I wish to God they were rich, and married, and
happy!"