The Cruise of the Violetta

AEQUAM memento," I reflected, "rebus in arduis."

After all, marriage would disturb my pursuits. A man with a liquid and non-resistant name like "Ulswater," with a fleshy and floating physique, with a mind as full of refuse as a sargasso sea, and whiskers resembling sargasso, -- when he proposes to ally himself in marriage to a woman like Mrs. Mink, whose rational instincts -- as a capable and neat housekeeper -- would be to trim his whiskers and rearrange his nature, to tidy up his mind and sweep it, hang antimacassars over its chairs, polish its andirons, fling the cuspidor out of the window, and can the tropical fruitage of his character into jellies and jams in glass jars with screw tops and rubber bands, -- when such a man has in mind such an alliance, if fate prevents, if an agile Presbyterian professor is one too many for him, what should he do but remark, "_Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem_," that is, "In trouble take it easy," and then immediately proceed to swear himself black in the face, and wish for a green and red parrot to take up the job after him?