domiciled in a pretty little country village, where Bently has
property, and I have hired his snug hunting lodge, and, in the mind
I am in, I shall remain the next six months, that is, if when the
term for renting this said lodge expires, I can find a place to
which I can bring my sister Emily, Here there is hardly room enough
for myself and Philips, who is still my factotum, valet, groom, and
I know not what besides; however, he is content, and so am I.
Heartily sick of town, and its conventualities, and tired of being
courted and feted, not for _myself_, but my _fortune_, I care not,
if I never see it again. I am weary, too, of 'single blessedness,'
and yet afraid to venture on matrimony; why is it so few are happy,
who do? There is some grand evil somewhere; but where? 'Aye there's
the rub.' I look narrowly into every family I visit, especially,
the newly married ones, and I see the _effect_, but not the
_cause_. Now, _one_ cannot be without the _other_, we well know. I
fear I expect too much from the other sex, and begin to think there
is more truth than poetry in your observation, that I 'must have a
woman made on purpose for me,' for I certainly do want to find one
very different from most that I have yet seen.

"Travelling between London and Bath, I met my father's old friend
and college chum, Falkner, who finding I had no settled plans,
persuaded me to take Bently's hunting lodge, which is in the
vicinity of his villa. Falkner is a worthy good creature, whom I
should give credit for a great deal of common sense, were he not so
completely under the dominion of his wife, a perfect Xantippe; by
the bye, I think, however wise he might be in some respects, that
Master Socrates was a bit of a goose, particularly if, as history
maintains, he did, he knew what a virago he was taking. But,
however deficient in her duty as a wife, Mrs. Falkner goes to the
other extreme, and overacts her part as a mother; but I am very
ungrateful in thus animadverting on her behaviour, for you must
know, she has singled out your humble servant as a most especial
favourite; and though _she does not wish her girls married_, takes
right good care to let me know that she thinks the woman who gets
me, will be lucky; and that, much as she would grieve to part from
one of her daughters, yet, were an eligible chance to offer, she
would throw no obstacles in the way. I do veril