He is domestically inclined, and in receipt of a good income. He is
desirous of meeting a lady of serious disposition, with view to
matrimony. If possessed of means--well, it is a trifle hardly worth
considering one way or the other. He does not insist upon it; on the
other hand he does not exclude ladies of means; the main idea is
matrimony.

It is sad to reflect upon a young lady, said to be good-looking (let
us say good-looking and be done with it: a neighbourhood does not
rise up and declare a girl good-looking if she is not good-looking,
that is only her modest way of putting it), let us say a young lady,
good-looking, well-educated, of affectionate disposition--it is
undeniably sad to reflect that such an one, matrimonially inclined,
should be compelled to have recourse to the columns of a matrimonial
journal. What are the young men in the neighbourhood thinking of?
What more do they want? Is it Venus come to life again with ten
thousand a year that they are waiting for! It makes me angry with my
own sex reading these advertisements. And when one thinks of the
girls that do get married!

But life is a mystery. The fact remains: here is the ideal wife
seeking in vain for a husband. And here, immediately underneath--I
will not say the ideal husband, he may have faults; none of us are
perfect, but as men go a decided acquisition to any domestic hearth,
an agreeable gentleman, fond of home life, none of your gad-abouts--
calls aloud to the four winds for a wife--any sort of a wife,
provided she be of a serious disposition. In his despair, he has
grown indifferent to all other considerations. "Is there in this
world," he has said to himself, "one unmarried woman, willing to