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104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
chanted. During a fortnight I felt the arrow sticking in
my heart; then it dropped out. Another young gentle-
inan, nowise handsome, but rich, saw me a couple of hours,
while I was paying a visit, and — he fell in love with me.
With his hand upon his heart, he whispered to me his
agony. He tried to get an introduction to our family, but
the door was forcibly shut against him by my father, who
willingly would have got all his daughters married, but who
never could tolerate the face of a suitor in his house. I
was then seventeen years old, read Madame Le Prince de
Beaumont’s works, and determined never to marry. From
this time forth there was for me a vacuum of suitors and
lovers until 1820, when I was twenty. N. B.—It was fortu-
nate, for the keeping of my word, that during this time no
suitor appeared to put my word to the’ test. Meanwhile I
had improved somewhat in my gait, in sitting, in curtsey-
ing, and got my person a little more into shape; got the
naine of being witty ; had less love for and more favor with
my mother. I understood better how to agree with people,
and to suit inyself to them. I had, moreover, begun to ac-
quire a certain quantity of every-day wisdom and common
sense, which made people entertain some hope respecting
my understanding, the doubts and questions of which I
tried to stifle as vain fermentations. In 1820 I accom-
panied my mother and sisters to a watering-place. It
was during the third term of the season, and we were
therefore alone. A very amiable and chivalrous elderly
gentleman and his wife, residing in the neighborhood, did
all they could to make our stay as agreeable as possible.
They had a son, a young, gay, good, and handsome lieuten-
ant. He began to sigh for me, and I began to warm a
little for him. It was a pastoral moment, when once, “in
the green fields,” I was wiping and scraping some tar off
one of my shoes, and when he, with half words and sighs
— well, nothing more came of it. We left at last, and he
acconipanied us to the nearest town. I remember, not
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