CHAPTER XXII 



TRAILING JUNIPER 



WHATEVER may be the case with youth, 

 I am satisfied in my own mind that the 

 mature man does not &quot;fall in love.&quot; 

 You might as well speak of falling in gambling 

 or in gluttony. He glides in with both feet over 

 a long grade whether it is up or down, you 

 shall say. Very absurd it is to a man of large 

 experience to speak of love as a precipice over 

 which he is liable to tumble inadvertently in the 

 twinkling of an eye, and with all respect to the 

 Montagues and Capulets whose &quot; ill-advised af 

 fair &quot; had to conform with precipitancy to the three 

 hours limitation of the stage, I think the ordi 

 nary man of the world wades in with much lin 

 gering deliberation, and in nine cases out of ten 

 doesn t know that he is in until he is up to his 

 ears. 



There would be no excuse for my dwelling upon 

 it if the experience had not been, so far as I could 



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