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
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 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.