VAN ROUGH
You are right, child; you are right. I am sure I
found it so, to my cost.
MARIA
I mean, Sir, that as marriage is a portion for life,
and so intimately involves our happiness, we cannot
be too considerate in the choice of our companion.
VAN ROUGH
Right, child; very right. A young woman should
be very sober when she is making her choice, but
when she has once made it, as you have done, I don't
see why she should not be as merry as a grig; I am
sure she has reason enough to be so. Solomon says
that "there is a time to laugh, and a time to weep."
Now, a time for a young woman to laugh is when she
has made sure of a good rich husband. Now, a time
to cry, according to you, Mary, is when she is making
choice of him; but I should think that a young
woman's time to cry was when she despaired of
getting one. Why, there was your mother, now: to be
sure, when I popp'd the question to her she did look
a little silly; but when she had once looked down on
her apron-strings, as all modest young women us'd to
do, and drawled out ye-s, she was as brisk and as
merry as a bee.
MARIA
My honoured mother, Sir, had no motive to mel-
ancholy; she married the man of her choice.
VAN ROUGH
The man of her choice! And pray, Mary, an't you
going to marry the man of your choice--what trum-
pery notion is this? It is these vile books [throwing
them away].
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