After all this love-lore, supposing any one were to take a tender interest in our welfare, we should hint to her that she had no need of borrowed charms or mystic foreshadowing of the future, in Horatian words, which we shall leave untranslated as a compliment to Girton:—
Tu ne quæsieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
Finem di dederint, Leuconoe; nec Babylonios
Tentaris numeros.
Simplicity and openness of disposition are worth more than all affectations of dress or manner. Well did the Scotch lad in the song rebuke his sweetheart, who asked him for a “keekin’-glass” (Anglice, “looking-glass”):—
“Sweet sir, for your courtesie,
When ye come by the Bass, then,
For the love ye bear to me,
Buy me a keekin’-glass, then.”
But he answered—