... I had long coveted Polly Espy. Let me emphasize that my desire for this young woman was not emotional in nature. She was, to be sure, a girl who excited the emotions, but I was not the one to let my heart rule my head. I wanted Polly for shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reasons.
I was a freshman in law school. In a few years I would be out in practice. I was well aware of the importance of the right kind of wife in furthering a lawyer's career. The successful lawyers I had observed were almost without exception, married to beautiful, gracious, intelligent women. With one omission Polly fitted these specifications perfectly.
Beautiful she was. She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt sure that time would supply the lack. She already had the makings.
Gracious she was. By gracious I mean full of graces. She had an erectness of carriage, an ease of bearing, a poise, that clearly indicated the best breeding. At table her manners were exquisite.
Intelligent she was not. In fact, she veered in the opposite direction. But I believed that under my guidance she would smarten up. At any rate, it was worth a try. It is, after all, easier to make a beautiful dumb girl smart than to make an ugly smart girl beautiful.
My first date with Polly was in the nature of a survey. I wanted to find out how much work I had to do her mind up to the standard I required. I took her first to dinner.
Notes:
fallacy-софизм, ложный выход
cerebral-зд. по рассудку
she would smarten up (coll.) - она поумнеет