All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

ALL LV A GARDEX FAIR. yj
girls— there are not many—are as perfectly
sure of a loveless life as Jephthah's daughter
they go about in despondency. When one
thinks about these poor girls thus liidden away
and kept out of sight of marrying man, one
feels first, vaguely, that something ought to
be done and must be done ; and secondly, that
there really should be held, some two or three
times in the year, a Babylonian marriage
market. We have got the Babylon all ready,
and really I think there would not be much
difficulty in getting an auctioneer and a steady
supply of lots. And, after all, such a mar-
riage would not be much more matter of
chance than plenty that are celebrated every
day.
Naturally, at nr^i, the boys grew up to
regard a big bankruptcy as a just cause for
pride ;
they considered, for inst^mce, that Whit-
tington came short of solid greatness by dying
in good credit ; and they looked uix)n the great
offices in the City as steps in the splendour of
a career which would presently end in a failure
;