the exception, and I believe you lawyers say that ' the exception proves the rule.' "
" Really you do not stint yourself in praising your sex."
"Now don't be unfair. Hear me out before you condemn me."
Well."
" I said that a long separation betwixt persons engaged to each other is apt to result in breaking off the match, because the gentleman becomes either indifferent or unfaithful. I am afraid you have not noticed facts, or you would not condemn my opinion so quickly. I can now look around the circle of my acquaintance and call to mind at least a dozen instances, in which these protracted engagements, combined with a long separation betwixt the parties, have ended unfortunately, I see by your looks that you also, although younger than I am, can recollect instances of a like character. I confess I am not surprised at this result, although I deplore it. In the cases to which I have alluded, the parties have usually been engaged while quite young, perhaps before they were capable of that study of each others character which ought always to precede a contract of so high and solemn a character as this. When, therefore, they grow older, and learn to know human nature better, they cannot fail to see faults in those they love to which they were at first blinded. This does not always happen I grant, for often the illusion of passion keeps us ignorant for years of the defects in the character of the beloved object ; but the scales often do drop off, especially in the case of the gentleman, or when the parties come to be separated for any length of time. I say in the case of the gentleman, because your sex unite more intellect with your love than our sex does. With us the passion is all heart, with you the head is at least prime minister. You analyze character more, you are apt to become hypercritical. When removed from the immediate influence of her you love, your affection insensibly cools. It does this from the very nature of your characters, and from your habits of life. With a woman fidelity is every thing. Putting aside coquettes- who are not true women- is there not more fickleness naturally in your sex than in our own ? But apart from this, our different habits of life make a wide difference in the character of our love. You live in the bustle and excitement of active existence - domestic happiness is the relaxation of your evening hours- the bye-play of your life. But with us our home is every thing, the centre around which all our feelings and thoughts revolve. We have but one engrossing passion-love : you have a dozen which divide with it the empire of the heart. Wealth, pleasure, ambition ! these are but a few of the passions that absorb the energies of men ; but with us love is every thing. If we surrender our hearts to one of your sex, we have no rival feeling in our bosoms to disturb our thoughts from the adored object. At morning and at night, through every hour of the day, his image is constantly before us as we sit at our indoor, quiet occupations, until at length to think of him we love grows necessary to our very being. Our love becomes a part of ourself, its roots striking daily deeper and deeper into our hearts. If we are disappointed in love, our health gives way, because we brood helplessly on our sorrows : and an intimate connexion exists betwixt the mind and the body. The true secret why so many of our sex, and so few of yours die of broken-hearts, is that in our case there is, from the solitude of our daily life, so little to divert our attention from our disappointment, while in your case numerous other passions step in and prevent your thoughts from dwelling on the shipwreck of your hopes. A woman's life is spent in comparative solitude, in holding communion with her own heart. A man soon learns to forget disappointments and griefs of every nature in the exciting contests of business or ambition. To apply these principles to the case of Dr. Duval. He will at first, after his separation from Miss Marlowe, imagine that he loves her dearer than ever, but by-and-bye new occupations will insensibly divert his mind from the contemplation of his betrothed, and then new persons will cross his path, in whom quite as insensibly he will learn to take an interest-and so in the end, he will find himself brought to think so little of Miss Marlowe, that he will gladly surrender her for some newer intimate. And all this will be brought about so insensibly to himself, that he will be totally ignorant of the ten thousand immeasurably fine links in the chain which led to this result. I have seen this case so often, and it is so natural a consequence of the active life led by your sex, that I fear for the future happiness of Miss Marlowe. But yet —as I said before- Dr. Duval may prove an exception to the general rule."
"And these are the reasons why you always oppose long courtships ?"
66 They are. Often a long courtship is a benefit rather than an injury, but I fear in general the reverse is the case.22 "Well, I scarcely know what to say. You certainly have argued your opinions in a clear and masterly style. But I'm afraid my vanity in my sex will not suffer me to adopt your conclusions. But here we are at your door, and I find the time has come for me to fulfil an engagement." "Good bye then ; but don't forget, if we live to see the end of this betrothal, to come to me and tell me what you then think of long courtships." Mrs. Alton was one of the most sensible women in the city. She had a tinge of romance in her disposition, but she never suffered this to interfere with her plain, common sense views of the duties and situations of life.
