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Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889

"No Name"

"It is natural enough that Frank should be
attracted by Magdalen; but I can't think that Magdalen returns the
feeling. Frank is so very unlike her; so quiet and undemonstrative; so
dull and helpless, poor fellow, in some things. He is handsome, I
know, but he is so singularly unlike Magdalen, that I can't think it
possible--I can't indeed."
"My dear good lady!" cried Miss Garth, in great amazement; "do you
really suppose that people fall in love with each other on account of
similarities in their characters? In the vast majority of cases, they do
just the reverse. Men marry the very last women, and women the very last
men, whom their friends would think it possible they could care about.
Is there any phrase that is oftener on all our lips than 'What can have
made Mr. So-and-So marry that woman?'--or 'How could Mrs. So-and-So
throw herself away on that man?' Has all your experience of the world
never yet shown you that girls take perverse fancies for men who are
totally unworthy of them?"
"Very true," said Mrs. Vanstone, composedly. "I forgot that. Still it
seems unaccountable, doesn't it?"
"Unaccountable, because it happens every day!" retorted Miss Garth,
good-humoredly.


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