It was but a few days since, I heard a pretty and sensible girl say,
'Did you ever see a man so ridiculously fond of his daughters as Mr.
----? He is all the time with them. The other night, at the party,
I went and took Anna away by mere force; for I knew she must feel
dreadfully to have her father waiting upon her all the time, while the
other girls were talking with the beaux.' And another young friend of
mine said, with an air most laughably serious, 'I don't think Harriet
and Julia enjoyed themselves at all last night. Don't you think,
nobody but their _brother_ offered to hand them to the supper-room?'
That a mother should wish to see her daughters happily married, is
natural and proper; that a young lady should be pleased with polite
attentions is likewise natural and innocent; but this undue anxiety,
this foolish excitement about showing off the attentions of somebody,
no matter whom, is attended with consequences seriously injurious. It
promotes envy and rivalship; it leads our young girls to spend their
time between the public streets, the ball room, and the toilet; and,
worst of all, it leads them to contract engagements, without any
knowledge of their own hearts, merely for the sake of being married as
soon as their companions.
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