before you merely the current gossip of the neighbourhood; people say
she is beautiful; they may be right, they may be wrong: it is not
for her to decide--"well-educated, of affectionate disposition,
possessed of means, desires to meet gentleman with a view to
matrimony."

Immediately underneath one reads of a gentleman of twenty-eight,
"tall, fair, considered agreeable." Really the modesty of the
matrimonial advertiser teaches to us ordinary mortals quite a
beautiful lesson. I know instinctively that were anybody to ask me
suddenly:

"Do you call yourself an agreeable man?" I should answer promptly:

"An agreeable man! Of course I'm an agreeable man. What silly
questions you do ask!" If he persisted in arguing the matter,
saying:

"But there are people who do not consider you an agreeable man." I
should get angry with him.

"Oh, they think that, do they?" I should say. "Well, you tell them
from me, with my compliments, that they are a set of blithering
idiots. Not agreeable! You show me the man who says I'm not
agreeable. I'll soon let him know whether I'm agreeable or not."

These young men seeking a wife are silent on the subject of their own
virtues. Such are for others to discover. The matrimonial
advertiser confines himself to a simple statement of fact: he is
considered agreeable."