Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/148

146 heroine ever fell in love with the consent of her family; but my mother said, 'Poor dear child, do not tease her.' "Well, my sister was married at eighteen—so was I, and the spoiling system has still continued. I know there is such a word as a contradiction in the dictionary, but my knowledge is all theory. I have a husband comme il n'y en a point, to whom I have made a wife comme il y en a peu. I have two of the prettiest children in the world—(don't answer, Emily—that smile is quite flattering enough); and I sometimes think whether, like the ancient king, it would not be prudent to make an offering to destiny, and throw my set of emeralds into the lake." Emily could not but deprecate the emeralds being destined to any such preventive service; and Lady Mandeville soon afterwards left her to meditate over her narrative, one phrase of which certainly dwelt on her mind. "Young, rich, pretty—it is quite impossible for you to have an unfortunate attachment!" The more imaginative love is, the more superstitious it must be: the belief of omens being past—that desire of the unattainable so inherent in our nature, and which shows itself in so