I didn't want him to fall in love just then--and if half a dozen girls fell in love with him, as they most assuredly would, if brought into too near relations with him, why, there was no telling what gratitude and natural sensibility might bring about.
Certificates are, for the most part, like ostrich-eggs; the giver never knows what is hatched out of them.

But once in a thousand times they act as curses are said to,--come home to roost.

Give them often enough, until it gets to be a mechanical business, and, some day or other, you will get caught warranting somebody's ice not to melt in any climate, or somebody's razors to be safe in the hands of the youngest children.
I had an uneasy feeling, after giving this certificate.

It might be all right enough; but if it happened to end badly, I should always reproach myself.

There was a chance, certainly, that it would lead him or others into danger or wretchedness.