Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 72 A MATTER OF TASTE PAET I It is a little singular that, upon an engagement becoming known and being discussed by the friends and acquaintances of the persons principally concerned, by far the most usual tone of comment should be a sorrowing wonder. That particular alliance is generally the very last that anybody ever expected. ' What made him choose her, of all people,' and 'What on earth she could see in him,' are declared insoluble problems. It is confidently predicted that the engagement will never come to anything, or that, if such a marriage ever does take place, it is most unlikely to prove a success. Sometimes, in the case of female friends, this tone is even perceptible under their warmest felicitations, and through the smiling mask of compliment shine eyes moist with the most irritating quality of compassion. ' So glad ! so delighted ! But why, u-liy didn't you consult me ?'—this complicated expression mightbe rendered : ' I could have saved you from this—I was so pleased to hear of it!' And yet, in the majority of cases, these unions are not found to turn out so very badly after all, and the misguided couple seem really to have gauged their own hearts and their possibilities of happiness together more accurately than the most clear-sighted of their acquaintances. The announcement that Ella Hylton had accepted George Chapman provoked the customary sensation and surprise in their respective sets, and perhaps with rather more justification than usual. Miss Hylton had undeniable beauty of a spiritual and rather exalte type, and was generally understood to be highly cultivated. She had spent a year at Somerville, though she had gone down without trying for a place in either ' Mods.' or ' Greats,' thereby preserving, if not increasing, her reputation for...