PES Tae BM Ft =F 
PHILLIDA AND CORIDON. 115 
enough, I felt sure, to calculate the value of a 
proper maidenly reluctance. How could her 
mate be expected to rate her at her worth, if 
she allowed herself to be won too easily? Be- 
sides, she could afford not to be in haste, seeing 
she had a choice of two. 
What a comfortably simple affair the matri- 
monial question is with the feminine cat-bird! 
Her wooers are all of equally good family and 
all equally rich. There is literally nothing for 
her to do but to look into her own heart and 
choose. No temptation has she to sell herself 
for the sake of a fashionable name: or a fine 
house, or in order to gratify the prejudice of 
father or mother. As for a marriage settle- 
ment, she knows neither the name nor the 
thing. In fact, marriage in her thought is a 
simple union of hearts, with no taint of any- 
thing mercantile about it. Happy cat-bird! 
She perhaps imagines that human marriages 
are of the same ideal sort! 
I have spoken of the affectionate language of 
these dusky lovers; but it was noticeable that 
they did not sing, although, to have fulfilled 
the common idea of such an affair, they cer- 
tainly should have been doing so, and each try- 
ing his best to outsing the other. Possibly 
there had already been such a tournament be- 
fore my arrival; or, for aught I know, this 
