eclared that _he_ never would be
caught.

As long as health remained, and that he could pass his evenings in gay
society, or at the theatres, he felt not the want of that greatest of
all comforts, _home_; a comfort inseparable from a wife to share, as
well as to make it. But the first attack of illness that confined him
to his room, with no tender hand to smooth his pillow, no gentle voice
to inquire into his wants, or to minister to them; no one to anticipate
his wishes almost before he had framed them; no loving face to look
fondly and anxiously on him; made him feel sensible, that though a
bachelor's life of pleasure may pass agreeably enough during the season
of health, it is a most cheerless and dreary state of existence when
deprived of it.

The discovery is, alas! made too late. All that he had ever heard or
urged against matrimony applies tenfold to cases where it is contracted
in old age. He can still admire youth and beauty, but he knows that
with such there can never exist any reciprocity with his own feelings.

The young beauty who would barter her charms for his wealth, would be,
he knows, no suitable companion for his fire-side; and to wed some
staid dame whose youth has been passed with some dear, kind, first
husband--of whom, if not often speaking, she might in all human
probability be sometimes thinking--has something too repugnant to his
feelings to be thought of.

An elderly maiden with a lap-dog, or a parrot, would be even more
insupportable; for how could one who has never had to consult the
pleasure or wishes of aught save self be able to study his? No! it is
now too late to think of marriage, and what, therefore, is to be done?
In this emergency, a severe attack of rheumatism confines him to his
chamber for many days. His valet is found out to be clumsy and awkward
in assisting him to put on his flannel gloves; the housekeeper, who is
called up to receive instructions about some particular broth that he
requires, is asked to officiate, and suggests so many little comforts,
and evinces so much sympathy for his sufferings, that she is soon
installed as nurse.

By administering to his wants, and still more by flattery and
obsequiousness, she soon renders herself indispensable to the invalid.
She is proclaimed to be a treasure, and her accounts, which hitherto
had been sharply scrutinised and severely censured, are henceforth
allowed to pass unblamed, and, consequently, soon amount to double the