Suppose a young man had to select his wife in this fashion from some
twenty or thirty thousand; or that a girl were suddenly confronted
with eighteen thousand eligible young bachelors, and told to take
the one she wanted and be quick about it? Neither boy nor girl
would ever marry. Fate is kinder to us. She understands, and
assists us. In the hall of a Paris hotel I once overheard one lady
asking another to recommend her a milliner's shop.
"Go to the Maison Nouvelle," advised the questioned lady, with
enthusiasm. "They have the largest selection there of any place in
Paris."
"I know they have," replied the first lady, "that is just why I
don't mean to go there. It confuses me. If I see six bonnets I can
tell the one I want in five minutes. If I see six hundred I come
away without any bonnet at all. Don't you know a little shop?"
Fate takes the young man or the young woman aside.
"Come into this village, my dear," says Fate; "into this by-street
of this salubrious suburb, into this social circle, into this
church, into this chapel. Now, my dear boy, out of these seventeen
young ladies, which will you have?--out of these thirteen young men,
which would you like for your very own, my dear?"
"No, miss, I am sorry, but I am not able to show you our up-stairs
department to-day, the lift is not working.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94