“I should like to give you some good advice.”

“Yes, yes, let me have it—­I’ll listen to it gladly.”

The mother then took her son’s hand, and began: 

“You must stand still—­I can’t talk while I am walking.  Look; that she should please you is, of course, the first thing—­there’s no happiness without love.  Well, I am an old woman, and so I may say what I think to you, may I not?”

“Yes, surely.”

“Well, if it doesn’t make you happy, if it doesn’t make you feel as if it were a boon from heaven to kiss her, then it’s not the right kind of love.  But—­why don’t you stand still—­but that kind of love is not enough; there may be something else concealed beneath it, believe me.”  Here the old woman blushed crimson and hesitated.  “Look you,” she went on, “where there is not the right feeling of respect, when a man does not feel rejoiced that a woman takes a thing in hand in just one way, and not in another, and does it just in this way, and not in that—­it’s a bad sign.  And above all things, notice how she treats her servants.”

“I’ll take what you have to say, and change it into small coin for you; for talking is hard for you.  What you have just said, I understand; she must not be too proud, and not too familiar.”

“That, certainly.  But I can tell by looking at a girl’s mouth, if that mouth has used bad words and scolded and stormed, and is fond of doing it.  Yes, if you could see her weeping with vexation, or come upon her unawares, when she is angry, that would be the best way of knowing what she is.  For then the inward self that we conceal springs out, and often that self is armed with claws, like a devil.  Oh, child, I have had much experience, and have seen many things.  I can tell by the way a woman puts out a candle what she is, and what kind of a temper she has; she who puts it out hurriedly as she goes by, regardless of whether it blows sparks or sputters or not, she is one who prides herself upon her bustling industry, and who does things only by halves, and has no peace of mind.”

“But, mother, you’re making it too hard for me; after all, it’s a lottery, and always will be one.”

“Yes, yes, you need not remember all I say—­I mean it only in a general way.  If it should come before you, you’ll know what I meant.  And then you must notice if she can talk and work at the same time, if she has something in her hand while she is talking to you, and if she stops every time she says a word and only pretends to be working.  I tell you that industry is everything in a woman.  My mother always used to say:  ’A girl should never go about empty-handed, and should be ready to climb over three fences to pick up a feather.’  And yet she must be calm and steady in her work, and not rush and rampage about as if she were going to pull down a piece of the world.  And when she speaks and answers you, notice whether she is either too bashful or too bold.  You may not believe it, but girls are quite different when they see a man’s hat from what they are among themselves.  And those who look as if they were all the time saying, “Don’t eat me!” are the worst—­but, no—­those who have such sharp tongues, and think that when anybody is in the room their tongues should never rest, those are worse still.”