“I should not always give a verdict of acquittal even in such cases.”
“Very likely not. There are old men whose manner and bearing are infinitely more attractive than the self-satisfied, self-relying composure of our modern young ones. Any thing, however, even boyish awkwardness, is preferable to your middle-aged gentleman, who, with a slight bald spot on his head, and a very permanent flush on his cheek, adds the stately pomp of his forty autumns to a levity that has no touch of younger days.”
“Heaven help us! what are we to do from thirty to fifty-five or sixty?”
“Marry, and live in the country. I mean, do not be young men about town. Apropos to nothing—are we not, this instant, in the very scene of Manzoni’s novel, ‘I Promessi Sposi?’”
“Yes; the whole of our journey to-day lies through it, from Lecco to Como; or rather, more to the northward again—what they call here, the ‘Brianza.’”
“The scene deserved better actors, in my opinion. I have always thought it a very tiresome story, even among that most tiresome class—Pure love-tales.”
“What say you to the ‘Bride of Lammermoor?’”
“That it is only inferior to ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ But how many interests are there brought up before the reader in either of these—all subordinate to the great one—but all exciting mingled and conflicting emotions! The author, in neither case, was satisfied to dwell on the daily and nightly sighings of a love-stricken pair. He knew better than to weave his web of one tissue. In fact, the Master of Ravens-wood is more the slave of his own blighted ambition than of his love, which, at best, was only an element in his feeling of abasement.”
“And yet, how faithfully was his love returned! Nothing short of a true passion meets such requital.”
“If you said, that no heart incapable of feeling ever inspired such, I would agree with you; but I fancy that women are often imposed upon, by supposing that they possess the entire affection of those they know capable of strong attachments.”