which an affirmative was plainly to be read. The entrance of a
servant prevented the happy lover from proceeding to extremities upon
her lips, "according to the statute in such case made and provided;" and
a very excellent statute it is too. Whether the "quashing of
proceedings" by the inopportune appearance of the servant was agreeable
to either party, I leave to wiser heads than mine to determine.

Many very well-meaning people, who pass for men of sense in every other
respect, are apt, when they feel matrimonially inclined, to think it
indispensably necessary to court the old folks, "hammer and tongs," as
the vulgar saying is, in the first place, and, having obtained their
good graces, to proceed very leisurely in their approaches to the young
lady. This may be a very prudent mode of managing matters, for aught I
know, but to me it savors rather of cold-blooded calculation, than
ardent or even passably warm affection. It is, besides, a gross and
unpardonable insult to the said young lady, whom it places immediately
upon a level with a horse, a pig, a cow, a load of hay, a chest of
drawers, or any other article of trade. It is like a man-of-war going in
to engage an enemy's battery, and heaving to, to "blaze away" at two old
dismantled hulks that are lying high and dry at the harbor's mouth.

CHAPTER IV.

_Parolles._ My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched.

_Lafeu._ Well, what would you have me to do? 'tis too late to pare her
nails now.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

There never was yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.

KING LEAR.

Julia Effingham was the only child of a rich merchant, who, like many
others in these latter days, when scheming and speculation have
superseded the good, old-fashioned habits of steady industry and
unmoveable perseverance in the art of acquiring wealth, was dazzled by
the one thousand and one bubbles that the South American revolution set
afloat. He dipped pretty largely into Mexican mines, and was bit; he
undertook to improve the breed of horses in Peru, and was bit; he
attempted to establish steam cotton-factories in Colombia, and was bit;
he bought largely into a Chilian Steam-boat Company, and was bit; till,
finally, he resolved to visit South America himself, "to see," as he
expressed it, "where the devil his fifty thousand pounds had gone to."
He