akfast-room, I felt exactly like a member of
the family; the hundred little discrepancies of thought and habit which
struck me forcibly at first, looked daily less apparent; the careless
inattentions of my fair cousins as to dress, their free-and-easy boisterous
manner, their very accents, which fell so harshly on my ear, gradually made
less and less impression, until at last, when a raw English Ensign, just
arrived in the neighborhood, remarked to me in confidence, "What devilish
fine girls they were, if they were not so confoundedly Irish!" I could not
help wondering what the fellow meant, and attributed the observation more
to his ignorance than to its truth.

Papa and Mamma Blake, like prudent generals, so long as they saw the forces
of the enemy daily wasting before them; so long as they could with impunity
carry on the war at his expense,--resolved to risk nothing by a pitched
battle. Unlike the Dalrymples, they could leave all to time.

Oh, tell me not of dark eyes swimming in their own ethereal essence;
tell me not of pouting lips, of glossy ringlets, of taper fingers, and
well-rounded insteps; speak not to me of soft voices, whose seductive
sounds ring sweetly in our hearts; preach not of those thousand womanly
graces so dear to every man, and doubly to him who lives apart from all
their influences and their fascinations; neither dwell upon congenial
temperament, similarity of taste, of disposition, and of thought; these are
not the great risks a man runs in life. Of all the temptations, strong as
these may be, there is one greater than them all, and that is, propinquity!

Show me the man who has ever stood this test; show me the man, deserving
the name of such, who has become daily and hourly exposed to the breaching
artillery of flashing eyes, of soft voices, of winning smiles, and kind
speeches, and who hasn't felt, and that too soon too, a breach within
the rampart of his heart. He may, it is true,--nay, he will, in many
cases,--make a bold and vigorous defence; sometimes will he re-intrench
himself within the stockades of his prudence; but, alas! it is only to
defer the moment when he must lay down his arms. He may, like a wise man
who sees his fate inevitable, make a virtue of necessity, and surrender at
discretion; or, like a crafty foe, seeing his doom before him, under the
cover of the night he may make a sortie from the garrison, and run for his
life. Ignominious as such a course must be, it is often