had placed so great a distance between Libussa and the object of her choice, that any attachment other than of a Platonic kind was scarcely to be hoped for. For although, in those times, alliances were no more arranged by genealogical tables, pedigrees, and parchments, than were the different kinds of insects by their feelers and wing-shells, or flowers and plants by their stamina, their pistils, their calices, and their metaries, still it was well known that the precious vine will only cling to the high elm-tree, and the ivy to the oak, while the vile creeper will only cling to the hedge. A mesalliance where the difference of station did not exceed a few inches, excited not, it is true, as in our critical times, a deal of pedantical talk: but when there was a difference of some yards, and the space between was filled by several competitors, making the distance more perceptible, there would have been, even in those remote times, a good deal of fuss about it. The prudent young lady had considered all this, and therefore gave no encouragement to her passion. She made the vestal vow not to encourage any wooers, either by her eyes, gesture, or words; with the restriction, however, to platonize as much as she liked, which she considered only a just indemnification.
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Libussa.
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