Couplet

“ It is re-embodied in the second couplet thus:
Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lovest me—for my name is Will.
The whole significance of both couplets resides in the twice-repeated fact that one, and only one, of the lady’s lovers is named Will, and that that one is the writer. To assume that the poet had a rival of his own name is to denude both couplets of all point. ‘Will,’ we have learned from the earlier lines of both sonnets, is the lady’s ruling passion. ”

“ The third couplet is more happy; the value expressed for him, by different sorts of men, raises him to esteem; there is yet something of the common cant of superficial satirists, who suppose that the insincerity of a courtier destroys all his sensations, and that he is equally a dissembler to the living and the dead [157] .
358At the third couplet I should wish the epitaph to close, but that I should be unwilling to lose the two next lines, which yet are dearly bought if they cannot be retained without the four that follow them.
X.
ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON.
At Easthamstead, in Berkshire, 1730. ”

“ In the 18th century, Le Sage, Piron and even Voltaire did not hesitate to engage their talents on the production of couplets, which were often witty, if they had no other merit, and were well fitted to catch the popular ear. ”

“ The waiter set some fruit before them and withdrew.
They both sat silent for a moment. Then she spoke in a gentle voice; and her whole being displayed so tender a melancholy that he could have burst into sobs and worshipped her where she sat.
"I knew of course that you would ask me that some day. It was in the nature of things. A great friendship like ours was bound to lead to that question. But it can't be, dearest Duco. It can't be, my dear, dear boy. I have my own ideas ... but it's not that. I am against marriage ... ”

“ And now that there’s a guest, now that we are in our dinner-jackets and Constance in an evening-frock, now that there are grapes and flowers on the table and a more elaborate menu than usual, now she does not lose her temper and won’t lose her temper, however many rocks we may have to steer past. I believe that, even if we began to talk about infidelity and divorce, about marriages with old men and love-affairs with young ones, she would remain quite calm, smiling prettily with those little dimples at the corners of her mouth, as though nothing could apply to her. ”

“ And no doubt it may appear very wonderful that Cupid, who is, as they say, as blind as a bat, and so hits by chance, should have the power of imparting to the eyes of his victims the faculty not only of seeing each other more clearly than before, but also of reading each other’s eyes so plainly, that by a glance they know that they are mutually thinking of each other. ”

“ They said nothing: clasped in each other’s arms, they gazed at life, shuddered at the hands, felt the approaching constraint which already was clouding more closely around them. But they felt warm in each other’s company; they locked up their little happiness tightly in their embrace and hid it between them, so that the hands might not point to it, touch it and thrust it aside.... ”

“ A Couple consists of a moving particle, raised to the degree M.A., and combined with what is technically called a 'better half.' The following are the principal characteristics of a Couple: (1) It may be easily transferred from point to point. (2) Whatever force of translation was possessed by the uncombined particle, (and this is often considerable,) is wholly lost when the Couple is formed. ”

“ Enamored youth have whispered a tender "good night" in the ear of blushing maidens, or stolen a kiss from the lips of some future bride—for Cupid here as elsewhere has been busy bringing together congenial hearts, and among these simple people he alone is consulted in forming the marriage tie. ”

“ Suddenly he remembered that he had never given her anything except on that first evening in the Woods, a ten-guilder piece and two rixdollars:
"Pauline," he said, "I should like to give you something. I should like to send you something. What may I give you?"
"I don't mind having something . . . but then you mustn't refuse it me. . . ."
"Unless it's impossible. . . ."
"If it's not possible . . . then I won't have anything."
"What is it you'd like?"
"You're sure to have a photograph . . . a group . . . of your children. . . ." ”

“ He, a good-looking fellow—short and well-knit, sturdy without being clumsy, with a pair of boyish blue eyes, a shapely, round head with lightly-curling, short, brown hair, like a head of Hermes, and still exceedingly young—thought that it would look well for him to make a little love to his chief's wife, without going any farther, of course.... ”

“ But a merry little couple were Gerdy and Constant, nine and eight years old, always together, adoring each other, good little flaxen-haired kiddies that they were: very babyish for their age, blending their resemblance to Papa and Mamma into one soft mixture of pink and white and gold, almost like a coloured picture, and seeming a couple of idyllic little figures by the side of the rough, sturdy elder brothers. ”

“ He clasps white hands in his, but no electric "Lulu"-like force holds him bound in their dainty pressure.
No, we never sicken with love twice. Cupid spends no second arrow on the same heart. Love's handmaids are our life-long friends. ”

“ No, I sha'n't marry, I sha'n't marry, I shall never marry."
"Come, Marianne: if some one comes along whom you get to love . . ."
"No, I shall never marry . . . I might expect too much of my husband. I should really want to find something beautiful, some great joy, in my love . . . and to marry for the sake of marrying, like Frances or Emilie, is a thing I couldn't, couldn't do . . . Otto is fonder of Louise than of his wife; and lately Emilie and Henri are inseparable . . . In our family there has always been that affection between brother and sister. But it is too strong, far too strong. ”

“ Not that I want them here, any more than you want to dine at Van Naghel’s; but, if you attach so much importance to connections, for the sake of our son, you could have done something else than cycle all over the Hague and Scheveningen, you could have pointed out to your friends that, as they condescend to know you in the sacred mysteries of that Plaats of yours, the least they could do would be to look you up at home and not to go on ignoring your wife, as though she were still your mistress . ”

“ I have seen much, too much, of fashionable marriages formed for worldly aggrandizement—for riches; sometimes in pique at having lost a coveted lover. With my peculiar sentiments, I feel that I could endure no heavier curse than to contract an alliance like any of these. ”

“ Constance looked at him in momentary perplexity. She could not speak for a second or two, did not understand. She herself had been brought up and had lived according to very punctilious rules of card-leaving; but yet she failed to understand how one brother-in-law could leave a card on another brother-in-law, before that other was in town and during a visit paid in his sister’s bedroom, amid all the muddle of her unpacked trunks. But she had been so long away from Holland and the Hague; she did not wish it to appear that she did not understand ”

“ Waring sat with her bride roses in one hand, and the other tucked secretly into Henry's under cover of her wrap, was ever any woman happier? Had ever any girl a lover more devoted or more bubbling over with fun? Romeo and Juliet—what were they to a real married couple of to-day? Then the supper afterward with the gay throng at the Waldorf—the reckless disregard of the midnight train—could there be dizzier heights of revelry? ”

“ The mate in the tree screams with exultation, the offspring leaps to her bosom, and both descend to embrace their upright spouse and father in a perfect whirl of chattering. Inarticulate chattering, most unlike speech, but still chattering—for Love was born. ”

“ To be married like Otto and Frances, like Emilie and Van Raven: I think it dreadful. Or like you and Auntie: I should think it dreadful. Can't you be happier together? Not even for Addie's sake? I wish you could ”

“ Bertha, who was very glad when Otto got married, cried when Emilietje accepted this chap. The fellow’s as stupid as my foot. . . . Those are neat socks of mine, aren’t they? . . . Yes, Connie, why do some people get married? Adolphine and Saetzema: why? I ask you, in Heaven’s name, why? Otto and Frances: why?”
She felt that he had it on his lips to say:
“And you and Van der Welcke: why?”
But he did not; and he ran on:
“Marriage is a terrible thing, I think. ”

“ The closing paragraph becomes significant, when we reflect upon the danger which the initiates feared would accrue to those still in the heyday of manhood's passions, if they proved unworthy of the Great Secret. The expression "The secret of the combination by twos and threes" has probably a double meaning here the esoteric meaning turning upon the two kinds of marital partnership; known to the initiates; husband and wife being the "combination by two" (in the second degree) ”

“ Dorine felt annoyed, and at the same time, confused: distinguished, distinguished. . . . And her thoughts muttered within her mind, while Constance stood looking at the portrait: distinguished, distinguished. . . . Constance did well to talk of being distinguished! . . . True, she had made a great marriage: De Staffelaer, the minister at Rome, an old diplomatist, a friend of Papa’s. . . . True, she had been distinguished, no doubt; and it had turned out nicely, her distinguished marriage. Distinguished indeed! . . . Could Constance really be vain still . . . ”

“ And as Cupid was exceedingly mischievous, and fond of aiming his arrows at people for his own amusement, the wrong women were always falling in love with the wrong men, and the wrong men with the wrong women: and so a great deal of fresh trouble came into the world, as if there had not been enough before, without the mischievous tricks of Cupid. ”

“ They laughed together; he gently wiped away her tears:
“You ought to see yourself in the glass,” he added, “with those red eyes of yours!”
He sat down. She rang the bell. The servant brought in the pudding, displayed no particular surprise at finding that meneer had gone. ”

“ Directly after dinner they began speechifying, and each man ended his speech with a little nasal stanza to friendship, the audience taking up the last word. At last somebody drank the health of the married men, and then some one else proposed the health of the single, and then every one began to quarrel as to which was the better and happier state. Richard and Mr. Copsey loudly stood up for the single, and urged them on to greater frenzy, and I would have done the same thing only I was afraid of shocking the padre. ”

“ Are you vexed with me?"
"Why, no, Marianne."
"Yes, there's something. You're cross with me. Tell me that you're not cross with me. I haven't dined with you for an age. You are vexed with me because I invited myself. Tell me that I'm mistaken, that you're not vexed with me. And do ask me to dinner again, one day . . . It's such a busy time just now: parties, dinners, the Court ball the other night. It was very boring . . . We never see you. You never call on us. Nor Uncle either. ”

“ There would be nothing but mere chance to secure that the advantageously varied bridegroom at one end of the wood should meet the bride, who by a happy contingency had been advantageously varied in the same direction at the same time at the other end of the wood. It would be a mere chance if they ever knew of each other’s existence—a still more unlikely chance that they should resist on both sides all temptations to a less advantageous alliance. ”

“ The hours of courtship are held in memory during her lifetime. She remembers the pretty things her lover said, and the first kiss, when they stood beside the stream and looked into each other's eyes, and when he showed sudden fear for her while they were riding and her horse bolted—those things, señor. ”

“ The old woman said, because his old voice had spoken gently:
“I should like to go to Henri, to-morrow.”
Now they were both silent; and the old man went on reading; and the old woman, waiting for his answer, ceased crying, ceased moving her feet, her shoulders. And, after a silence, the old man said: “Take Piet with you, then, to help you.” ”

“ In his easy-chair, with the glass of grog mixed by Constance at his side, he was just a big, burly, light-haired fellow in his mufti; and his movements were brisk, his parade-voice sounded loud. . . . His wife was sitting there, gentle and placid, the quiet, resigned little mother; the children were asleep at home. Oh, his children, how he loved them! . . . Certainly, all of that existed, it was no phantasm, it was most certainly the truth; but behind that truth lay hidden another truth ”

“ A dear little girl, Adeline, young—she was thirteen years younger than her husband—fair-haired and placid: a regular little mother even as a girl. And Gerrit, though he had had a brief vision of other women, other girls, had thought:
"Oh, well, yes, a bit bread-and-buttery; but you want a different sort for your wife than you do for your mistress!" ”

“ They were both so “awfully intellectual” that it struck people as a suitable match, but I knew better than any one the wealth of understanding the bride would contribute to the partnership. Never, for a marriage in literary circles—so the newspapers described the alliance—had a bride been so handsomely dowered. I began with due promptness to look for the fruit of their union—that fruit, I mean, of which the premonitory symptoms would be peculiarly visible in the husband. ”