sn't a female."

"Your grandpapa," retorted Mrs. Wilfer, with an awful look, and in an
awful tone, "was what I describe him to have been, and would have
struck any of his grandchildren to the earth who presumed to question
it. It was one of Mama's cherished hopes that I should become united
to a tall member of society. It may have been a weakness, but if so,
it was equally the weakness, I believe, of King Frederick of Prussia."
These remarks being offered to Mr. George Sampson, who had not the
courage to come out for single combat, but lurked with his chest under
the table and his eyes cast down, Mrs. Wilfer proceeded, in a voice of
increasing sternness and impressiveness, until she should force that
skulker to give himself up. "Mama would appear to have had an
indefinable foreboding of what afterward happened, for she would
frequently urge upon me, 'Not a little man. Promise me, my child, not
a little man. Never, never, never marry a little man!' Papa also would
remark to me (he possest extraordinary humor), 'That a family of
whales must not ally themselves with sprats.'

"His company was eagerly sought, as may be supposed, by the wits of
the day, and our house was their continual resort. I have known as
many as three copper-plate engravers exchanging the most exquisite
sallies and retorts there, at one time." (Here Mr. Sampson delivered
himself captive, and said, with an uneasy movement on his chair, that
three was a large number, and it must have been highly entertaining).
"Among the most prominent members of that distinguished circle, was a
gentleman measuring six feet four in height. He was not an engraver."
(Here Mr. Sampson said, with no reason whatever, of course not.) "This
gentleman was so obliging as to honor me with attentions which I
could not fail to understand." (Here Mr. Sampson murmured that when it
came to that, you could always tell.) "I immediately announced to both
parents that those attentions were misplaced, and that I could not
favor his suit. They inquired was he too tall? I replied it was not
the stature, but the intellect was too lofty. At our house, I said,
the tone was too brilliant, the pressure was too high, to be
maintained by me, a mere woman, in every-day domestic life. I well
remember Mama's clasping her hands, and exclaiming, 'This will end in
a little man!'" (Here Mr. Sampson glanced at his host and shook his
head with despondency.) "She afterward went so far as to predict that
it