144 LIFE- OF MYTTON. 



circulation were found to be untrue. Secondly, there 

 was a great intimacy, as well as congeniality, if I may 

 apply the word here, between the brothers of his 

 second lady and himself, who could see nothing but 

 what was congenial in their brother-sportsman and 

 friend. Again, Why was Venus (the Egyptian one) 

 represented standing naked on a lion, but to indicate 

 that love conquers even the fiercest beast ? Here, 

 then, was the lion in toils. The suing lover was on 

 his very best behaviour during the days of probation, 

 to which I was myself a witness, for he often made 

 my house his home, as it was within two miles of that 

 of the object of his choice. Again, " Credula res amor 

 est" — Lo\-e believes everything ; and not only the 

 young lady — and young she was, for, if my memory 

 serves me, she was only in her seventeenth year — but 

 we all believed there was a fair prospect of happiness 

 in the anticipated union. Neither was it suffered to 

 take place without due consideration. The pros and 

 the cons were nicely weighed and weighed again by 

 the anxious mother, and they appeared nearly to bal- 

 ance the scales. Still it was long before her mind was 

 made up, and in the intimacy of our friendship she put 

 the following home question to me : — " Had you a 

 daughter marriageable," said this amiable lady, and 



