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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 471
means. He had been with our friend Mrs. Brandon : was staying
with her. The Little Sister thought three hundred would be
sufficient. They could have her second floor—not for nothing;
no, no, but at a moderate price, which would pay her. They could
have attics, if more rooms were needed. They could have her
kitchen fire, and one maid, for the present, would do all their work.
Poor little thing! She was very young. She would be past
eighteen by the time she could marry; the Little Sister was for
early marriages, against long courtships. " Heaven helps those as
helps themselves," she said. And Mr. Philip thought this excellent
advice, and Mr. Philip's friend, when asked for his opinion—
" Candidly now, what's your opinion ?"— said, " Is she in the next
room ? Of course you mean you are married already."
Philip roared one of his great laughs. No, he was not married
already. Had he not said that Miss Baynes was gone away to
Tours to her aunt and uncle ? But that he wanted to be married;
but that he could never settle down to work till he married; but
that he could have no rest, peace, health till he married that angel,
he was ready to confess. Ready 1 All the street might hear him
calling out the name and expatiating on the angelic charms and
goodness of his Charlotte. He spoke so loud and long on this
subject that my wife grew a little tired ; and my wife always likes
to hear other women praised, that (she says) I know she does.
But when a man goes on roaring for an hour about Dulcinea?
You know such talk becomes fulsome at last ; and, in fine, when
he was gone, my wife said, " Well, he is very much in love ; so
were you—I mean long before my time, sir ; but does love pay the
housekeeping bills, pray ?"
"No, my dear. And love is always controlled by other
people's advice :—always," says Philip's friend ; who, I hope, you
will perceive was speaking ironically.
Philip's friends had listened not impatiently to Philip's talk
about Philip. Almost all women will give a sympathising hearing
to men who are in love. Bo they ever so old, they grow young
again with that conversation, and renew their own early times.
Men are not quite so generous : Tityrus tires of hearing Corydon
discourse endlessly on the charms of his shepherdess. And yet
egotism is good talk. Even dull autobiographies are pleasant to
read : and if to read, why not to hear? Had Master Philip not
been such an egotist, he would not have been so pleasant a
companion. Can't you like a man at whom you laugh a little 1
I had rather such an open-mouthed conversationist than your
cautious jaws that never unlock without a careful application of
the key. As for the entrance to Mr. Philip's mind, that door was