Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/144

eighteen before the marriage; and they did manage to arrange some little jealousies and quarrels, which agreeably diversified the delay. The year of probation passed, and my sister married. Even now, I remember how I missed her. I cried the first three nights I curled my hair by myself. However, September came, and with it my second brother; and his companion for the shooting season was the young, handsome, and lively Henry O'Byrne, descended from kings whose crown was old enough to have been made of the gold of Ophir. I—who considered a lover as the natural consequence of being fifteen, and indeed was rather surprised I had not one already, and who held half-a-dozen blushes proof of the state of my feelings—lost my heart with all the ease imaginable; and Henry made love to me, because, I verily believe, he considered it a proper compliment, which every lady under fifty expected. A declaration of love was to me tantamount to an offer—though, to tell you the plain truth, I very much doubt whether it was meant to be so taken by my Milesian lover. My father—I really do not know how he could venture on such a liberty—one day actually said he wished I would not walk quite so much on the terrace