ngholm. Such advice I considered useless in regard to my Waller,
she being only about fourteen years of age, but in other respects a
fair and womanly creature to see; for her waist was nearly twice as
large as Alice Snowton's, and her shoulders also, and in weight she
would have been greatly an overmatch; and certes, putting aside all
parental fondness, which we know to be such a beautifier of one's own
kindred as to make the crow a more lovely animal than the dove (in the
eyes of the parent crow), I will confess that in my estimation, and
also in that of my excellent wife, there was no comparison between the
two fair maidens, either in respect of fulness of growth or redness of
complexion--the advantage being, in both these respects, on the side
of the junior. Some sentiment of this sort I saw at the time must have
possessed the honourable breast of the Viscount Lessingholm; for
although he made much profession of visiting at the parsonage for the
sake of seeing his juvenile brother, still there were certain looks
and tokens whereby I was clearly persuaded that the magnet was of a
different kind; and whereas it would have been vain and ambitious in
me to lift my eyes so high, in view of matrimonial proposals, as to
nearly the topmost branch in the peerage of England (the Earls
Fitzoswald being known to have been barons of renown at the period of
the Norman Conquest); still it would ill have become me to prevent my
daughter from gathering golden apples if they fell at her feet,
because they had grown on such a lofty bough of the tree; and I will
therefore confess, that it was with no little gratification I saw the
unfoldings of a pure and virtuous disposition in the honourable young
nobleman. And I will further state, that it seemed as if his presence
when he came (and that was often, nay, sometimes twice in one day),
did make holiday in the whole house; and Charles was by no means
backward in his friendship--receiving the fishing-rods presented unto
him by the right honourable with so winning an eagerness, and pressing
Alice (his constant friend) to go with him and the noble donor with so
much zeal to the brook, therein to try the virtues of the gift, that I
found it impossible to refuse permission; and therefore did those
three often consume valuable hours (yet also I hope not altogether
wasted)--_videlicet_, Alice and Charles, and the honourable
viscount--in endeavouring to catch the finny tribe, yet seldom with
much