296 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



gentleman's ardour, however, is not to be thus checked ; he again solicits 

 her to be his partner in a dance. She finds it hard, very hard, to refuse 

 him ; and both, yielding at last to the alluring influences by which they 

 are surrounded, discover at the moment of parting that a new and de- 

 lightful sensation has been awakened in their hearts. 



At a juncture so critical in the life of a young, inexperienced woman as 

 that when she begins to form an attachment for one of the opposite sex 

 at a moment when she needs the very best advice, accompanied with a 

 considerable regard for her overwrought feelings the very best course 

 she can take is to confide the secret of her heart to that truest and most 

 loving of friends her mother. Fortunate is the daughter who has not 

 been deprived of that wisest and tenderest of counsellors whose experi- 

 ence of life, whose prudence and sagacity, whose anxious care and appre- 

 ciation of her child's sentiments, and whose awakened recollections of her 

 own trysting days, qualify and entitle her, above all other beings, to coun- 

 sel and comfort her trusting child, and to claim her confidence. Let the 

 timid girl then pour forth into her mother's ear the flood of her pent-up 

 feelings. Let her endeavour to distrust her own judgment, and seek hope,, 

 guidance, and support from one who, she well knows, will not deceive or 

 mislead her. The confidence thus established will be productive of the 

 most beneficial results by securing the daughter's obedience to her 

 parent's ad vice/ and her willing adoption of the observances prescribed by 

 etiquette, which, as the courtship progresses, that parent will not fail to- 

 recommend as strictly essential in this phase of life. Where a young 

 woman has had the misfortune to be deprived of her mother, she should 

 at such a period endeavour to find her next best counsellor in some female 

 relative, or other trustworthy friend. 



We are to suppose that favourable opportunities for meeting have oc- 

 curred, until, by and by, both the lady and her admirer have come to 

 regard each other with such warm feelings of inclination as to have a 

 constant craving for each other's society. Other eyes have in the mean- 

 time not failed to notice the symptoms of a growing attachment ; and 

 some " kind friends " have, no doubt, even set them down as already 

 engaged. 



The admirer of the fair one is, indeed, so much enamoured as to be un- 

 able longer to retain his secret within his own breast ; and not being 

 without hope that his attachment is reciprocated, resolves on seeking an 

 introduction to the lady's family preparatory to his making a formal de- 

 claration of love. 



