marry an earl's daughter: why should not the son of a farmer--not to say
one who, according to the lady's mother, himself belonged to an
aristocracy? The farmer's son indeed was poor, and who would look at a
poor banker, or a poor brewer, more than a poor farmer! it was all
money! But was he going to give in to that? Was he to grant that
possession made a man honorable, and the want of it despicable! To act
as if she could think after such a silly fashion, would be to insult
her! He would lay bare his heart to her! There were things in it which
she knew what value to set upon--things as far before birth as birth was
before money! He would accept the invitation, and if possible get his
volume out before the day mentioned, so as, he hoped, to be a little in
the mouth of the public when he went.

Walter, like many another youth, imagined the way to make a woman love
him, was to humble himself before her, tell her how beautiful she was,
and how much he loved her. I do not see why any woman should therefore
love a man. If she loves him already, anything will do to make her love
him more; if she does not, no entreaty will wake what is not there to be
waked. Even wrong and cruelty and carelessness may increase love already
rooted; but neither love, nor kindness, nor worship, will prevail to
plant it.

In his formal acceptance of the invitation, he inclosed some verses
destined for his volume, in which he poured out his boyish passion over
his lady's hair, and eyes, and hands--a poem not without some of the
merits made much of by the rising school of the day, and possessing
qualities higher, perhaps, than those upon which that school chiefly
prided itself. She made, and he expected, no acknowledgment, but she did
not return the verses.