our Isa's age,--is more sedate, more womanly, more meditative than
her English sister. The world's work is more in her thoughts, and
the world's amusements less so. She probably knows less of those
things which women learn than the English girl, but that which she
does know is nearer to her hand for use. She is not so much
accustomed to society, but nevertheless she is more mistress of her
own manner. She is not taught to think so much of those things
which flurry and disturb the mind, and therefore she is seldom
flurried and disturbed. To both of them, love,--the idea of love,--
must be the thought of all the most absorbing; for is it not fated
for them that the joys and sorrows of their future life must depend
upon it? But the idea of the German girl is the more realistic, and
the less romantic. Poetry and fiction she may have read, though of
the latter sparingly; but they will not have imbued her with that
hope for some transcendental paradise of affection which so often
fills and exalts the hearts of our daughters here at home. She is
moderate in her aspirations, requiring less excitement than an
English girl; and never forgetting the solid necessities of life,--
as they are so often forgotten here in England. In associating with
young men, an English girl will always remember that in each one she
so meets she may find an admirer whom she may possibly love, or an
admirer whom she may probably be called on to repel. She is ever
conscious of the fact of this position; and a romance is thus
engendered which, if it may at times be dangerous, is at any rate
always charming. But the German girl, in her simplicity, has no
such consciousness. As you and I, my reader, might probably become
dear friends were we to meet and know each other, so may the German
girl learn to love the fair-haired youth with whom chance has for a
time associated her; but to her mind there occurs no suggestive
reason why it should be so,--no probability that the youth may