She was an exceptional case; I disbelieved in
her protestations that she was perfectly natural, and managed to get
some opportunities for observation when she did not know that she was
observed. I must own that she was quite truthful; she also managed to
get married--suburban happiness and no position--but, as I said, she
was exceptional. Personally, I feel sure that I should never have been
married if I had seemed to be what I really was. I cannot understand
this desire to be natural--it _is_ so affected.
My correspondence this week is not very interesting. In spite of my
disclaimer last week, I have been asked several questions which are
not connected with Sentiment and Propriety. "BELLADONNA" asks my
advice on rather a delicate case; she is almost engaged to a man, A.,
and her greatest friend is a girl, B. Happening, the other day, to
open B.'s Diary by mistake for her own, she discovered that B. is
also very much in love with A. What is "BELLADONNA" to do? I think
the most honourable course would be to report in her own Diary a
statement by A. that he loathes B., and then leave the Diary where B.
might mistake it for her own. This is checkmate for B., because she
cannot do anything nasty without thereby implying that she has read
"BELLADONNA's" Diary.
* * * * *
HAMLET; OR, KEEPING IT DARK.
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