meet with your match, I'm afraid. If he's steady, he is not very
likely to be very generous; and if to those two qualifications you tack
on birth, wealth, beauty, and bravery, I think your `that's all' is very
misplaced. Now, I have other ideas."

"Pray let me have them, Melissa."

"I do not want my husband to be very handsome; but I wish him to be full
of fire and energy--a man that--in fact, a man that could keep me in
tolerable order. I do not care about his having money, as I have plenty
in my own possession to bestow on any man I love; but he must be of good
education--very fond of reading--romantic, not a little; and his
extraction must be, however poor, respectable,--that is, his parents
must not have been tradespeople. You know I prefer riding a spirited
horse to a quiet one; and, if I were to marry, I should like a husband
who would give me some trouble to manage. I think I would master him."

"So have many thought before you, Melissa; but they have been mistaken."

"Yes, because they have attempted it by meekness and submission,
thinking to disarm by that method. It never will do, any more than
getting into a passion. When a man gives up his liberty, he does make a
great sacrifice--that I'm sure of; and a woman should prevent him
feeling that he is chained to her."

"And how would you manage that?" said Araminta.

"By being infinite in my variety, always cheerful, and instead of
permitting him to stay at home, pinned to my apron-string, order him out
away from me, join his amusements, and always have people in the house
that he liked, so as to avoid being too much _tete-a-tete_. The caged
bird ever wants to escape; open the doors, and let him take a flight,
and he will come back of his own accord. Of course, I am supposing my
gentleman to be naturally good-hearted and good-tempered. Sooner than
marry what you call a steady, sober man, I'd run away with a captain of
a privateer. And, one thing more, Araminta, I never would,
passionately, distractedly fond as I might be, acknowledge to my husband
the extent of my devotion and affection for him. I would always have
him to suppose that I could still love him better than what I yet did--
in short, that there was more to be gained; for, depend upon it, when a
man is assured that he has nothing more to gain, his attentions are
over. You can't expect a man to chase nothing, you know."

"You are a wild girl, Melissa. I only hope you will marry well.