“How, sir?”
“Instead of clinging to your Blackstone, you have allowed yourself to be seduced from its pages, by such attractions as usually delude boys. The eye and lip of a pretty woman—a bright eye and a rosy cheek, have diverted you from your duties.”
“But do our duties deny us the indulgence of proper sensibilities?”
“Certainly not—PROPER sensibilities, on the contrary, prescribe our duties.”
“But love, sir—is not love a proper sensibility?”
“In its place, it is. But you are a boy only. Do you suppose that it was ever intended that you should entertain this passion before you had learned the art of providing your own food? Not so; and the proof of this is to be found in the fact that the loves of boyhood are never of a permanent character. No such passion can promote happiness if it is indulged before the character of the parties is formed. I now tell you that in five years from this time you will probably forget Miss Cooper.”
“Never! never!”
“Well, well—I go farther in my prophecy. Allow me to suppose you successful in your suit, which I fancy can never be the case—”
“Why, sir, why?”
“Because she is not the girl for you; or rather, she does not think you the man for her!”