The things we do!

To write to her personally on the subject of the marriage, Thomas Newcome
had determined was not a proper course for him to pursue. "They consider
themselves," says he, "above us, forsooth, in their rank of life (oh,
mercy! what pigmies we are! and don't angels weep at the brief authority
in which we dress ourselves up!) and of course the approaches on our side
must be made in regular form, and the parents of the young people must
act for them. Clive is too honourable a man to wish to conduct the affair
in any other way. He might try the influence of his beaux yeux, and run
off to Gretna with a girl who had nothing; but the young lady being
wealthy, and his relation, sir, we must be on the point of honour; and
all the Kews in Christendom shan't have more pride than we in this
matter."
All this time we are keeping Mr. Clive purposely in the background. His
face is so woebegone that we do not care to bring it forward in the
family picture. His case is so common that surely its lugubrious symptoms
need not be described at length.


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