dearest object of your wishes would you cross his slightest purpose. My life to a jerkin of Cordovan, the King proposes to you the marriage himself.--Now, my Lord, what is your next difficulty?" "That lies with the lady," answered Lord Rochester; "she has never shown the slightest sign of distinguishing me from all the crowd of the Court." "Odds life! my Lord," interrupted Overbury, "do you expect a lady to woo you? did she do so, she were not worth your having; and the Lady Arabella is none such. Nay, more, my Lord, you will have to woo her, and zealously too; but the more difficult the attainment, the more worthy is the prize. You will have to make her love you, before you can hope for her hand. But yet, as some sort of encouragement, I will tell you that she and I have been talking about you just now, and you already stand well with her. She spoke of you generously and kindly, cited the gift you had lately made to the revenue, and praised your deportment at the Court. Person, too, with all women is no light matter; and to be married to the handsomest man in England, may flatter a woman's vanity, which is the first way to win her love." "But all flatterers do not succeed with women," said Rochester. "Because their flattery is too gross, or those to whom they address it too clear-sighted," replied Overbury; "the moment it is known to be flattery, it ceases to flatter; and therefore it is that indirect praise is so much more gratifying than any other. Few have such a stomach as our royal master, who has been compared to many things, but I wonder never to an ostrich, for he can digest iron, if it be well spiced." "But," asked Carr, in a tone of doubt, "can this lady love at all, Overbury? Has she the feelings and passions of other women? I could not content me with a cold and indifferent bride; and I have remarked that, whatever proposals have been made for her hand, she has seemed right glad and well pleased when they were rejected--I speak not alone of men whom she has never seen, but when there was a question of Northumberland's son; and the King took him to task for wooing her, she seemed quite relieved when he retired from the Court, and said, I understand, that of all the favours the King had conferred upon her, that deliverance was the greatest."