side of any one given young lady,--when he lingers where she stays, and
hastens when she leaves,--when his eyes follow her as she moves, and
rest upon her when she is still,--when he begins to grow a little
timid, he who was so bold, and a little pensive, he who was so gay,
whenever accident finds them alone,--when he thinks very often of the
given young lady, and names her very seldom,----

What do you say about it, my charming young expert in that sweet
science in which, perhaps, a long experience is not the first of
qualifications?

----But we don't know anything about this young man, except that he is
good-looking, and somewhat high-spirited, and strong-limbed, and has a
generous style of nature,--all very promising, but by no means proving
that he is a proper lover for Iris, whose heart we turned inside out
when we opened that sealed book of hers.

Ah, my dear young friend! When your mamma--then, if you will believe
it, a very slight young lady, with very pretty hair and figure--came
and told _her_ mamma that your papa had--had--asked----No, no, no! she
couldn't say it; but her mother--oh, the depth of maternal
sagacity!--guessed it all without another word!--When your mother, I
say, came and told her mother she was _engaged_, and your grandmother
told your grandfather, how much did they know of the intimate nature of
the young gentleman to whom she had pledged her existence? I will not
be so hard as to ask how much your respected mamma knew at that time of
the intimate nature of your respected papa, though, if we should
compare a young girl's _man-as-she-thinks-him_ with a forty-summered
matron's _man-as-she-finds-him_, I have my doubts as to whether the
second would be a fac-simile of the first in most cases.