shouldn't he
use some choice in the matter? Why not know Thackeray and Carlyle,
Lord Palmerston and the Pope, and the Emperor of China and all the
great statesmen, authors, African explorers, military commanders,
artists, hereditary nobles, actresses, wits and belles of the best
society, instead of putting up with Tom, Dick, and Harry?"

"Berkeley, 'with whom the bell-mouthed flask had wrought!'" exclaimed
Clay. "Decidedly, Berk, you should take your coffee without cognac."

"Let me suggest," put in Doddridge, "that some of those parties you
mentioned are not so easy to get introductions to."

"Oh, I say again, you mustn't take me too literally. But even the top
swells are easier to know than you think. All that is wanted is a
little cheek. But take it in a smaller way; say that we resolve to
cultivate the best society within our reach. Doubtless there are
numbers of interesting and distinguished people right here in New
Haven whose acquaintance it would be worth while to have. But how long
would you beggars live here without making the least effort to look
them out, and meanwhile put up with the same old every-day bores--like
me, or Polisson here? And it's the same way with marriage. A fellow
blunders into matrimony with the first attractive girl that gives him
the opportunity. He knows, if he takes the time to think about it,
that there are a thousand others better than she, if he will wait and
look through the world a little. 'Juxtaposition in fine,' as Clough
says."

"Of course, with such a brilliant destiny before you, _you'll_ never
marry," said I.

"Yes, I think I shall. I fancy that the noblest possibilities of life
are never realized without marriage. Yes, I can think of nothing finer
than to have a lot of manly boys and sweet girls growing up around
one. But when I marry it shall be so as to give completeness and
expansion to life, not narrowness and dullness. I shall never marry
and settle down. Settle down! What a damnable expression that is! A
man ought to settle _up_. I mean to have my fling first, too. I should
like to gamble a bit at Baden-Baden. I should like to go out to
Colorado and have a lick at mining speculations. I want to rough it
some too, and see how life is lived close to the bone: ship for a
voyage before the mast; enlist for a campaign or two somewhere and
have joy of battle; join the gypsies or the Mormons or the Shakers for
awhile, and taste all the queerness of things. And then I