No man under forty, unless he is a
positive idiot, will stand forth as a theoretical bachelor. It is all
nonsense to say that there is anything unpleasant in being courted.
Attention, whether from male or female, tickles the vanity; and although
I have a reasonable, and, I hope, not unwholesome regard for the
gratification of my other appetites, I confess that this same vanity is
by far the most poignant of the whole. I therefore surrendered myself
freely to the soft allurements thrown in my way by such matronly
denizens of Glasgow as were possessed of stock in the shape of
marriageable daughters; and walked the more readily into their toils
because every party, though nominally for the purposes of tea, wound up
with a hot supper, and something hotter still by way of assisting the
digestion.
I don't know whether it was my determined conduct at the allocation, my
territorial title, or a most exaggerated idea of my circumstances, that
worked upon the mind of Mr. Sawley. Possibly it was a combination of the
three; but, sure enough few days had elapsed before I received a
formal card of invitation to a tea and serous conversation.
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