At that epoch of the history it is well
known that the hero is seldom more than thirty years old, and the
heroine by consequence some seven or eight years younger; and I would
ask any of you whether it is fair to suppose that people after the above
age have nothing worthy of note in their lives, and cease to exist as
they drive away from Saint George's, Hanover Square? You, dear young
ladies, who get your knowledge of life from the circulating library, may
be led to imagine that when the marriage business is done, and Emilia
is whisked off in the new travelling-carriage, by the side of the
enraptured Earl; or Belinda, breaking away from the tearful embraces
of her excellent mother, dries her own lovely eyes upon the throbbing
waistcoat of her bridegroom--you may be apt, I say, to suppose that all
is over then; that Emilia and the Earl are going to be happy for the
rest of their lives in his lordship's romantic castle in the North, and
Belinda and her young clergyman to enjoy uninterrupted bliss in their
rose-trellised parsonage in the West of England: but some there be among
the novel-reading classes--old experienced folks--who know better than
this. Some there be who have been married, and found that they have
still something to see and to do, and to suffer mayhap; and that
adventures, and pains, and pleasures, and taxes, and sunrises and
settings, and the business and joys and griefs of life go on after, as
before the nuptial ceremony.
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