"Well," said Mrs. Douglas, "I am not a little amazed that these _recruits_, as you call them, should be ready to place themselves under the control of officers so little disposed to regard them with tenderness; but, as this is a serious subject in which the happiness of mankind at large is concerned, we will treat it gravely. Providence has so ordered the affairs of earth, that marriage will always be a primary object of concern with _both_ sexes; for remember, that the idea of _wife_, involves that of _husband_; and to supply each _aspirant_ of either sex, you must find a disengaged individual of the other. Now if it appear that the mass of human beings are intended by their Creator for the state of matrimony, and that their own wishes generally coincide with the original purpose of creation, would it not seem a reasonable consequence that a condition which almost all men and women anticipate, should be rendered as desirable, as suitable, as happy, and as wise as a reflecting choice can make it?" "Surely," said I, "and _there_ lies the difference between an improvident silly mother, or one who is governed by a prudent knowledge of the world, and clear views of her childrens' advantage. Women are, you will confess, great fools when they allow their girls to flirt with younger sons who have nothing; military men, whose fortunes are on their backs, and all the idle host who furnish a drawing-room and excel in a quadrille. Maternal solicitude ought unquestionably to be directed to a good settlement, liberal pin-money--if _possible_ a distinguished connection; and in short, all the circumstances which constitute what every one admits to be a _good match_. How painful must it be to read a paragraph in the public papers announcing that on such a day Mr. Such-an-one, whom nobody knows, was married by some clergyman whose name was never heard of, in a parish church not to be found in any map, to Miss Douglas of Glenalta! If I am doomed to suffer such disgrace, I shall set out directly for Greece, or some other distant quarter to which my countrymen do not flock in the crowds that one is certain to meet in France and Italy, _there_ to remain till the event is forgotten, and the unfortunate actors in it, are consigned to well-merited oblivion. Forgive me if I am warm; I do not mean to be disrespectful, but my energies rise in proportion to the hourly increase of love and admiration which I feel towards relations so near and so deserving."