A seated woman has a padlock through her mouth. The valentine suggests that the recipient's quietness will disappear when she marries. The border shows cupids and hearts; one cupid shoots a heart out of a cannon labeled "Love"; another cupid travels with a heart in a hot-air balloon; and another thimble cupid hammers at a cracked heart below a heart on a fishhook labeled "Caught.", Text: A rare and commendable thing / Is well-affected silence, / Among the maids their wiles who bring / Our dulness to beguile hence. / Yet Paddock no control assumes, / (Experience teaches this bird), / When Wedlock or the future looms / And "Yes" has to be whispered., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
