the apron-strings of an american mother are made of india-rubber. her boy belongs where he is wanted; and that young marylander of ours spoke for all our young men, when he said that his home was wherever the stars and stripes blew over his head.
and that leads me to say a few words of this young gentleman, who made that audacious movement,——jumping over the seats of i don’t know how many boarders to put himself in the place which the little gentleman’s absence had left vacant at the side of iris. when a young man is found habitually at the side of any one given young lady,——when he lingers where she stays, and hastens when she leaves,——when his eyes follow her as she moves, and rest upon her when she is still,——when he begins to grow a little timid, he who was so bold, and a little pensive, he who was so gay, whenever accident finds them alone,——when he thinks very often[69] of the given young lady, and names her very seldom,——
what do you say about it, my charming young expert in that sweet science in which, perhaps, a long experience is not the first of qualifications?
——but we don’t know anything about this young man, except that he is good-looking, and somewhat high-spirited, and strong-limbed, and has a generous style of nature,——all very promising, but by no means proving that he is a proper lover for iris, whose heart we turned inside out when we opened that sealed book of hers.
ah, my dear young friend! when your mamma——then, if you will believe it, a very slight young lady, with very pretty hair and figure——came and told her mamma that your papa had——had——asked——no, no, no! she couldn’t say it; but her mother——o, the depth of maternal sagacity!——guessed it all without another word!——when your mother, i say, came and told her mother she was engaged, and your grandmother told your grandfather, how much did they know of the intimate nature of the young gentleman to whom she had pledged her existence? i will not be so hard as to ask how much your respected mamma knew at that time of the intimate nature of your respected papa, though, if we should compare a young girl’s man-as-she-thinks-him with a forty-summered matron’s man-as-she-finds-him, i have my doubts as to whether the second would be a fac-simile of the first in most cases.
i have been a good while coming at a secret, for which i wished to prepare you before telling it. i think there[70] is a kindly feeling growing up between iris and our young marylander. not that i suppose there is any distinct understanding between them, but that the affinity which has drawn him from the remote corner where he sat to the side of the young girl is quietly bringing their two natures together. just now she is all given up to another; but when he no longer calls upon her daily thoughts and cares, i warn you not to be surprised, if this bud of friendship open like the evening primrose, with a sound as of a sudden stolen kiss, and lo! the flower of full-blown love lies unfolded before you.
