Hints for Lovers Part 28

Never fear but that one woman will urge your suit with another (unless, of course, that other is a rival); for

Match-making is one of the most fascinating of feminine avocations.

When a woman allows it to be understood that she considers herself irresistible to the other s.e.x, she draws upon herself the odium of her own. By the other s.e.x, however, such a woman is very differently regarded. Indeed,

Men regard the avowed coquette not at all with malice, but with a very opposite feeling, of which perhaps amus.e.m.e.nt, admiration, and a certain amicable defiance are the chief ingredients.

It is only mountains that are volcanic or are snow-capped; the plains know nothing of extremes of frigidity or fire.

To the woman whom he has ceased to love, the man is sometimes unconsciously cruel.

Towards the man whom she has ceased to love, the woman commonly acts a part.

For a woman to humiliate one man in the presence of another is an offence which neither of the men is likely to forget. Nor will the one man have a less unpleasant recollection of it than the other.

It is curious to listen to the explanations by one woman of the reasons of the attractiveness of another woman. Very apt is she to say that the other woman is too "free and easy", too liberal of her favors, too expansive of her sympathy, too exhibitive of her charms.--Ahem!

Women know women. And

Women know that women know men. And

Women know that men do not know women.--Ahem!--Men in this respect are somewhat different:

A man usually regards not ungenerously the qualities of his successful rival; a woman never. The former will candidly admit the possession of a more potent charm; the latter will trace it to the crudest of causes. In a word,

The unsuccessful man blames, not his rival, nor the women he loses, but himself.

The unsuccessful woman blames, never herself, but either the outrageous meretriciousness of her rival, or the blindness of the man she loses.

From which it may once more be deduced that The unsuccessful woman blames, never herself, but either the outrageous meretricousness of her rival, or the blindness of the man she loses.

From which it may once more be deduced that Men are won by more primitive means than are women. And, alas for men (alas also for many women),

The majority of men are so blind, so abominably blind, that they cannot distinguish the women who are really in love with them, from the women who pretend to be in love with them, but are not. For because,

So completely do women know men, that it is easy for any woman to delude any man. This is one of the reasons why

Every woman is the rival of every other woman:

This woman will be herself, her own true, simple, and virtuous self; will resort to no subterfuge, adopt no meretricious methods, scorn to rely upon tactics or strategy, be ever reserved, reluctant, shy;--yet fail.

This other woman will openly and blatantly, overtly and unconcernedly, a.s.sail the masculine heart with word and look and gesture--and win.

--Ach! the purblindess of the masculine heart! how it exasperates even the woman!

That man has sunk low who cannot recognize and respect the remnant of s.e.x even in a degraded woman.

Woman can persuade themselves--and men--far more easily than can a man, of the propriety of their actions.

Man is powerless before an injured woman. He has no more dangerous foe than this.

It is the man who seeks excuses. The woman braves it out.

Coquetry is Love's lady's-maid. She is accessory and ancillary to Love; she bedizens Love, she tricks her out in gay apparel.

When Love's lord and master enters, my lady's maid is dismissed. (It might be as well sometimes to recall her.) And

Nudity ousts coquetry.

Chast.i.ty is a word with as many shades of meaning as there are peoples --perhaps as there are individuals--upon the face of this habitable world.

Women think chast.i.ty is a virtue primarily insisted upon and enforced by men. They mistake. 'T is a virtue primarily insisted upon and enforced by women: For

When that divine, unique thing Love comes to a woman, if she be not chaste, it is she who deplores the fact. The man may easily enough be deceived; her own heart a woman can never deceive. Besides,

With what righteous indignation women themselves visit unchast.i.ty!

Between the s.e.xes, resentment is the worst of defensive weapons: in the hands of a man it is like a cow-hide s.h.i.+eld opposed to Mauser bullets; in the hands of a woman, like a parasol on a cloudy day. Since

Woman penetrates resentment by ridicule; man treats it with dull indifference. And

A snub from a woman is never forgotten. And for two reasons: because

(a) The lord of creation hates to be floored by the jiu-jitsu of feminine raillery; and because

(b) The last thing a man expects from a "ministering angel" is mundane mockery. Besides,