And are they not unhappy? asked Sir Charles.
They are, replied she.
I knew such an instance, returned he. The lady was handsome, and had her
full share of vanity. She believed every man who said civil things to
her, was in love with her; and had she been single, that he would have
made his addresses to her. She supposed, that she might have had this
great man, or that, had she not been precipitated: And this brought her
to slight the man who had, as she concluded, deprived her of better
offers. They were unhappy to the end of their lives. Had the lady lived
single long enough to find out the difference between compliment and
sincerity, and that the man who flattered her vanity, meant no more than
to take advantage of her folly, she would have thought herself not
unhappy with the very man with whom she was so dissatisfied.
Lady L---- speaking afterwards of a certain nobleman, who is continually
railing against matrimony, and who makes a very indifferent husband to an
obliging wife: I have known more men than one, said Sir Charles, inveigh
against matrimony, when the invective would have proceeded with a much
better grace from their wives' lips than from theirs. But let us
inquire, would this complainer have been, or deserved to be, happier in
any state, than he now is?
A state of suffering, said Lady L----, had probably humbled the spirit of
the poor wife into perfect meekness and patience.
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