Stop! Stay yet again thy headlong plunge! Was she yet lovely, an houri of a dream, but still beneath thee in family, station, fortune, and didst therefore smile but to deceive? If so, hold hard, hug this sweet volume to thy heart of hearts, and sin no more!
Stop, and meditate upon the three foregoing paragraphs, for in them are embodied the cardinal principles in making love: Purity of purpose, Disinterestedness and Truth.
Stop for some encouragement before rendering your attentions universally conspicuous. A glance of the eye, a tremor of the lip, the merest shadow of a blush upon the seashell-tinted cheek, will suffice.
Stop, if such subtle signs are wanting or withheld, and plan some deep-laid scheme to unveil heart’s predilection, indifference, or dislike. Oysters and ice-cream are still available in their respective seasons.
Stop before mistaking a passing fancy for a wild, consuming maddening, over-mastering, star-jostling passion. This mistake has evoked more paternal walking-sticks and breach-of-promise suits than would keep a French novelist in subject-matter for a twelvemonth.
Stop, after falling head over ears in love, to collect your senses and formulate your plans. An inconsiderate, maniacal rush into a declaration is often repented at leisure.
Stop, if not certain of your ground, before wholly unmasking your batteries. Delicate attentions, even worshiping, awe-struck glances from afar, are time-old preliminaries, but none the less effective.
Stop, however, on the threshold of feverish demonstration at the outset. Furnace-like sighs, dazed, dumb-founded looks, like those of an expiring calf, and frenzied bodily contortions may be brought to bear in their own good time.
Stop short of opposing her tastes and convictions. To gently chime with them, whether you have any of your own or not, while preserving a vigorous masculinity in favor of quail-gorging, head-punching and kindred noble sports, is in the main commendable.
Stop before vaunting a wild, atheistical or Ingersollian contempt for all things sacred, if she should be of a deeply religious turn. However, this is not to prescribe a regular biblical course, a very little of which goes a great way in the wooing o’t.