I felt, at the first, that there was something lacking to make my cup
of love perfectly delightful. It was very sweet, but there was
wanting that flower of romance which is generally added to the
heavenly draught by a slight admixture of opposition. I feared that
the path of my true love would run too smooth. When Maria came to
our house, my mother and elder sister seemed to be quite willing that
I should be continually alone with her; and she had not been there
ten days before my father, by chance, remarked that there was nothing
old Mr. Daguilar valued so highly as a thorough feeling of intimate
alliance between the two families which had been so long connected in
trade. I was never told that Maria was to be my wife, but I felt
that the same thing was done without words; and when, after six weeks
of somewhat elaborate attendance upon her, I asked her to be Mrs.
John Pomfret, I had no more fear of a refusal, or even of hesitation
on her part, than I now have when I suggest to my partner some
commercial transaction of undoubted advantage.

But Maria, even at that age, had about her a quiet sustained decision
of character quite unlike anything I had seen in English girls. I
used to hear, and do still hear, how much more flippant is the
education of girls in France and Spain than in England; and I know
that this is shown to be the result of many causes--the Roman
Catholic religion being, perhaps, chief offender; but, nevertheless,
I rarely see in one of our own young women the same power of a self-
sustained demeanour as I meet on the Continent. It goes no deeper
than the demeanour, people say. I can only answer that I have not
found that shallowness in my own wife.

Miss Daguilar replied to me that she was not prepared with an answer;
she had only known me six weeks, and wanted more time to think about