“Then I love her better than anything else in the known world. I do, that’s a fact; but she’s young—only fourteen—and before she’s old enough to marry she may change forty times, and that would kill me dead.” Puts down one pro for his own love, and one _con_ for Rose’s possible inconstancy. “But she is poor—or, her father, they say, is worth only about $5,000! He already has nine children, and there’s time enough for three or four more:—_thirteen_ into _five thousand_ makes—_Long Division_, a rule I never fancied; too poor altogether!” And against Rose’s name there is _con_ No. 3, _long_ and _black_, with the shadow of her four unborn brothers, who, by the way, never came in for a share of the $5,000. “Then her family connections, I do not suppose, are such as would add anything to my influence. Good, respectable people, no doubt, but not known in the world like the Hungerfords, Dell Thompson’s maternal relatives. To be sure, I once heard Rose speak of an uncle who resides in Boston, but I dare say he’s some grocer or mechanic, living on a back street; while Dell’s uncle, from the same city, must be a man of wealth and importance, judging by the figure his wife cuts when she visits the captain.” Here Dell received a _pro_ for the Hungerford blood flowing in her veins, while Rose had a _con_ for the want of said Hungerford blood. “Dell, too, has $10,000 of her own, or rather will have, when her grandmother dies; and there are not many young men who can jump into that fortune every day. Yes, $10,000 is a decided temptation.” And lest Rose, who already numbered six, should come out in the majority, three long marks were put down against the $10,000 to be inherited at the death of a grandmother, whose name Dell bore. “Then Dell has an air, which shows at once what she is, and no man need be ashamed of her in any place.” (Mark No. 5.) “Then, again, she’s handsome—decidedly so—such beautiful eyes! such small feet! and curls!” Here a vague remembrance of certain long shoes, with wads of cotton, _versus_ French slippers and silken hose, arose before the man of the world, resulting in a _pro_ for the slippers, and a _con_ for the cotton! “But Dell is deceitful—high-tempered—artificial—selfish superficial—and all that! The other picture suits me best, or would, were it not for the Hungerford blood, and the $10,000. Let me see how it foots up:—Six _pros_ for Dell, and the same number for Rose.” Here was a dilemma; but anon he remembered how awkwardly the last mentioned young lady looked, when she fell at his feet—and this decides the matter. He is sensitive to ridicule, very, and he could not endure the sneering remarks which an avowed attachment to her might call forth from the world of fashion; so he crosses one of the _pros_ which he had written against her name, when he thought how much she admired him—and then it stands, Dell 6; Rose 5!