constant surprises. She had had
many lovers, and she confessed them to Hamlet in the prettiest way.
"Perhaps, my dear," she said to him one evening, with an ineffable
smile, "I might have liked young Romeo very well, but the family were so
opposed to it from the very first. And then he was so--so demonstrative,
don't you know?"

Hamlet had known of Romeo's futile passion, but he had not been aware
until then that his betrothed was the heroine of the balcony adventure.
On leaving Juliet he-went to look up the Montague; not for the purpose
of crossing rapiers with him, as another man might have done, but to
compliment him on his unexceptionable taste in admiring so rare a lady.

But Romeo had disappeared in a most unaccountable manner, and his family
were in great tribulation concerning him. It was thought that perhaps
the unrelenting Rosaline (who had been Juliet's frigid predecessor) had
relented, and Montague's man Abram was dispatched to seek Romeo at her
residence; but the Lady Rosaline, who was embroidering on her piazza,
placidly denied all knowledge of him. It was then feared that he had
fallen in one of the customary encounters; but there had been no fight,
and nobody had been killed on either side for nearly twelve hours.
Nevertheless, his exit had the appearance of being final. When Hamlet
questioned Mercutio, the honest soldier laughed and stroked his blonde
mustache.

"The boy has gone off in a heat, I don't know where--to the icy ends of
the earth, I believe, to cool himself."

Hamlet regretted that Romeo should have had any feeling in the matter;
but regret was a bitter weed that did not thrive well in the atmosphere
in which the fortunate lover was moving. He saw Juliet every day, and
there was not a fleck upon his happiness, unless it was the garrulous
Nurse, against whom Hamlet had taken a singular prejudice. He considered
her a tiresome old person, not too decent in her discourse at times, and
advised Juliet to get rid of her; but the ancient serving-woman had been
in the family for years, and it was not quite expedient to discharge her
at that late day.

With the subtile penetration of old age the Nurse instantly detected
Hamlet's dislike, and returned it heartily.

"Ah, ladybird," she cried one night, "ah, well-a-day! you know not how
to choose a man. An I could choose for you, Jule! By God's lady, there's
Signior Mercutio, a brave gentleman, a merry gentleman, and a virtuous,
I warrant ye, who