PE ILL ID A AND COR I DON. 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 



