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This family was the life of every husking-bee, where each red ear of corn led to rollicking fun, resounding smacks on rosy cheeks, and of paring-bees when even numbered apple-seeds were the match-makers for bachelors and maids.
The bulk of mankind will be happier, and do more for others, by letting them alone; at least by avoiding any of that sort of meddling which may be construed into officiousness. Some of the worst meddlers in human society are those who have been denominated match-makers.
Thereupon the young man coloured and looked for a moment beautiful. Leon and Elvira both observed the byplay, and a shock passed from one to the other; for they were inveterate match-makers, especially between those who were already married. "I beg your pardon," said Leon suddenly. "I see no use in pretending.
"No, indeed," answered Socrates, "for I remember what Aspasia once said, that match-makers are successful in their business when they tell truth of the persons in whose behalf they court, but that the marriages made by their lies are unfortunate, because they who are deceived hate one another, and hate yet more the person that put them together.
This unfortunate termination to her well-meant efforts in behalf of the unhappy pair was a severe blow to Mrs. Upton. She had been for many years the busiest of match-makers, and seldom had she failed to bring about desirable results. In the homes of a large number of happy pairs her name was blessed for all that she had done, and until this no unhappy marriage had ever come from her efforts.
What consolation can it be, when bound to such a companion for life, to reflect, that you have escaped the odious name of an "old maid?" Better ten lives of singleness, than a few years of that wretchedness so often occasioned by marrying simply and solely for fear of being single. Others marry to gratify their Friends. This world abounds in match-makers.
What a pity it is, I thought, that a friendly intercourse which I should highly prize must be disturbed by the awkward consciousness that this old letter-writer and his sister are watching and misinterpreting with all the zeal of match-makers who have baited their trap, and are ready to mistake anything for a nibble!
"It should have put you on your guard; for a woman like Mrs. Martindale, gossiping about as she does, night after night, with young folks, cannot, it seems to me, have the best ends in view." "She seems to be a very well-disposed woman." "That is true. And yet I have been several times persuaded that she was one of the detestable tribe of match-makers." "Surely not."
I saw her at the Kalatchik fair; I fell madly in love with her, was ready to hang myself. . . . I live at Rovno, she at Demidovo, more than twenty miles apart, and there was nothing I could do. I sent match-makers to her, and all she said was: 'I won't! Ah, the magpie! I sent her one thing and another, earrings and cakes, and twenty pounds of honey but still she said: 'I won't! And there it was.
If Spencer had cared to pursue his point half a century ago, he had the key to it in his hands. Youth prefers the natural to the acquired qualities. Nature, greatest of match-makers, has so constructed youth because she is a Eugenist, and because she knows that it is the natural qualities and not the acquired ones which are transmitted to offspring.
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