or as sure as you're there, Bridgie, I'll
accept them all! 'Twouldn't be in my heart to say no, with a nice man
begging to be allowed to take care of me. I'd love him on the spot for
being so kind; or if I didn't, and I saw him upset, it would seem only
decent to comfort him, so 'twould end the same way. ... It breaks my
heart when the girls refuse the nice man in books, and I always long to
be able to run after him when he leaves the room--ashy pale, with a
nerve twitching beside his eye--and ask him will I do instead! If I
feel like that to another girl's lover, what will I do to my own?"

Bridgie stared aghast. Her brain was still reeling from the shock of
hearing Pixie refer to the subject of lovers at all, and here was yet
another problem looming ahead. With a loving grasp of her sister's
character, she realised that the protestations to which she had just
listened embodied a real danger. Pixie had always been "the
soft-heartedest creature," who had never from her earliest years been
known to refuse a plea for help. It would only be in keeping with her
character if she accepted a suitor out of pure politeness and
unwillingness to hurt his feelings. Bridgie was a happy wife, and for
that very reason was determined that if care and guidance, if authority,
and persuasion, and precept, and a judicious amount of influence could
do it, Pixie should never be married, unless it were to the right man.
She therefore adopted her elderly attitude once more, and said firmly--

"It's very wicked and misguided even to talk in such a way. When the
time comes that a man asks you to marry him--if it ever comes--it will
be your first and foremost duty to examine your own heart and see if you
love him enough to live with him all his life, whether he is ill or
well, or rich or poor, or happy or sad. You will have to decide whether
you would be happier with him in trouble or free by yourself, and you'd
have to remember that it's not always too easy managing a house, and--
and walking about half the night with a teething baby, and darning
socks, when you want to go out, and wearing the same dress three years
running, even if you love the man you've married. Of course, some girls
marry rich husbands--like Esmeralda; but that's rare. Far more young
couples begin as we did, with having to be careful about every shilling;
and that, my dear, is _not_ agreeable! You need to be _very_ fond of a
man to make it worth while to go on