The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-07-09
AN ESTHETIC FLIRT.

| TIC name, OF perhaps because MS tanlly lOVeu
old china, or perhaps because he had five
sisters and no brothers from one of these
causes or from quite different cause-what
matters it, since the fact remains the same
Mr.. Paul Clarkson was without doubt an
aesthetic firt. How much of nirt he was,
perhaps he himself hardly realized; IL all
came so naturally TO him. He was hand
some fellow, young Paul He had tall,
well made figure, pale but very expressive
face, and a good deal of warm brown hair.
No woman with such eyes could have kept
from flirting; SO let us not be too hard upon
this man, especially as for some time he did
no one any harm. He wrote poems, which
his fair friends greatly admired. We gods,
what sad poems they werel In them Mr..
| Clarkson nirted with death Just rs he llirted
with women. lie sat at her feet and called
pretty Names If his stern mistress had
turned round sharply, and made him take
| her for worse, | hardly imagine he would
| have been n very willing bridegroom; but as
| the grim lady Just then seemed to want none
of hm--as lungs, liver, and heart were all
they should be-this verse flirting with death
was all very nice.
Mr.. Clarksen's grief was that he had
once been engaged to girl of whom he was
really getting rather tired, when, in the most
unexpected manner, she got tired of him,
|
wrong. Mr.. Clarkson felt very badly, or
said he did. II is quite impossible to say
what he did not get ont of that grief of his.
| OF course, its prime use was n seasoning to
/ his poems. Then II was n great help In those
| nice ilirtations ! have spoken of. man
with blighted affections may go much
further in flirting than man who ia heart
| whole. The dear creature comes naturally
for consolation.
Did Clarkson make the best of his opportu'
nifty think he did. lie wrote don't
know how many poems to his faithless lady;
| these poems he rected TO other fair
ladies; he plunged into all sorts of dissipa-
ton, not because he was naturally addicted
to such things but because he was so ex-
tremly unhappy. He was very desperate
man, and cynical; why, he believed in moth
ing, always excepting friendship, between
| men and women.
II Glanced one night that Mr.. Clarkson
met, AT n reception, Miss Hilda Ford. She
was not girl. She was about thirty. She
was very pretty, and not at all aesthetic. She
had good intellect, though, and loved
poetry genuinely. Her voice was unusually
low and sweet; il had strange thrilling
music In it, She lived with her mother in
the country, but they made frequent visits
to London.
| Now, when ClarlSson saw her he fell in
love at first sight He loved everything
about hcr--her full beautiful figure, her
sensitive face, with the deep dark blue eyes,
| the red passionate mouth the long slender
hands, the way she carried herself. He was
quite bowed down. His love grief-that had
seen so much service; had been paraded, q,
in how many poems, had been talked over,
sighed over, laughed over, with what awful
laughter-was put away. Mr.. Carkson no
longer wished to die, he wished TO marry
| Miss Ford
He loved his dear friends; but there had
been till now no one that he had quite wanted
to marry. Truth to say, he was rather hop
ing that some one in whom he could take n
very decided interest would turn up, when
10 she appeared upon the scene. | think
| aman should respects really useful gricfmoro
than Clarkson did. He thrust il away with
out u tcar--what do ! say ?-without even n
n farewell sonnet. Heart and soul he went
in for his new love. o bards, bards, are We
not an ungrateful lot ?
Paul Clarkson, then, loved IIilda Ford; and
what is very much to the point is, that the
kind feeling he entertained for her she
entertained for him. So, why not say at
| once that he proposed and was accepted
" lIilda," he cried, looking into her eyes
passionately, "tell me how much you love
| me 20
| She pressed his hand and said:
| " love you with my whole heart. Your
love is the crown and glory of my life; il is
my supreme rapture and my supreme rest"
And then perhaps because her face finished
SO she leaned il on his shoulder. while he
kissed her thick gold hair.
All this was very nice, and Just as it
should be; but troubles came. As it hap
pened, most unfortunately, :Miss Ford had n
iaa1 ntc ,,l u1,. Ind a.,
find out about Paul's ilrtations, to which
she very much objected. OF course, nothing
would have been easier than for Paul to
have given up such lirtations to which |
think Miss Ford was quite right in excepting.
Only thvt was Just what he did not do.
Easy, | said; no, far more difficult than
we dream of.
To be in love, and to play at being in
love, are two very different things; and in
their own way they are both pleasant enough.
Playing at being in love is very fasci-
mating game, land, like most games, 1T takes at
least two players. This game Miss Ford
liked not, a fact which he could not tell to
these dear co.players.
"When our engagement is made public, {"
he said to himself, 81 will knock all these
affairs on the head.''
So he very wrongly-wishing at the same
time to have and to eat his pie
told his beloved that he would forswear the
close friendships that so much troubled
her, and all the while he privately INDUCED
in them. She found him out once. He
rushed down to her house in the country,
where, as can be easily imagined, scene
took place.
1t was the beautiful Miss Sanford that
fIilda specially objected to. He promised
faithfully that he would see her no more ;
but the old habit was so strong that as soon
as he returned to London he went back to
his Platonic worship of her. He kept, how
ever, his proceedings very dark indeed,
can tell you; but, as we all know mu rder
will out.
AS i'll or good luck would have it, an init
mate friend of Miss Sanford went to visit
some friends who Were neiGhbors of the
Fords. To the pleasure of all parties CON
cerned, it turned out that Mr.. ClarlSson was
a mutual friend. Then came the question
from our friends friend:
"Was Mr.. Clarkson going to marry Miss
Sanford 2"
Every one knew what ilrt he was; still
his attentions in that quarter were extremely
marlsed.
Perhaps So" said IIilda. quietly.
She wrote few words to Paul that night,
asking him to come down and see her.
The Fords lived in n remote country vii
lage. 1t was n hot June evening when he
found himself walking up the long garden
, that surrounded their house.
Mrs. Ford greeted him very warmly:
, "pll SO in and send Hilda to you," she
said in her kind, cheerful voice.
She left the room, and few minutes
t after Miss Ford came in. He heard her
dress whispering as she walked.
"Good evening"" she said 1T was kind
of you to come when asked you"
She sat down in a low chair, her hands
clasped loosely in each other.
But shall not" she resumed, have to
tax you again in this way"
"liavo | done anything to displeasc
you 7" ho answered, turning very pale.
"Tell me at once, and let me have il over. -
"What have TO say is" she rejoined
that everything between us must be over,
now and forever. If IL Is hard for Won II Ia