, 1892-01-29

the Widow ocarron-s promoJIon TO
the post of governess to Mime. de Mon
tespan's children, because he should
have to meet her in visiting the apart
ments of his favorite. and 1t is moro
than probable hat the Widow S~carron,
knowing her own powers, resolved, on
hearing this objection. to make the
royal critic feel their force. At any
rate she did so. and not only forced
Louis to tolerate, but to admire her, and
finally 10 put away for her sake the
regal beauty who had insisted upon
introducing her into the Tuileries. Nay,
more, she forced him in the end to
marry her and to become her very slave
in the matter of the revocation of the
edict of Nantes, n stepto which no other
of his many loves, nor the royal wife
whom he never loved could have begun to
nov him. And yet. Mime. de Maintenon
was neither young, handsome o bril-
liant. She was grave, and Louis loved
gayety; she was a rigid a~scetic, and
Louis was self indulgent to an enormous
extent; she was severely candid, and
Louis loved flattery; but, put it all in
one word, she was fascinating to him,
as she had already been to Scarron and
might nave been to more men had she
not also been the very soul of discretion
and caution.
But all fascinating women are not
Phrynes OF Mime. de Maintenons.
Some of them are as pure and truthful
as the sun is bright, and haven't the
least idea OF doing or being anything
wrong: but alas, some of them seem to
have no other ideas, eitheri They go
sweetly on their way, and men, the hus-
bands of good, stupid, helpless women,
see them, listen to their voices, linger a
while in the radius of their charm, and
find the world forever changed and life
a WEAKNESS and their domestic content
turned to bitter repinings. The fasci-
mating woman has not wished to bring
misery N t that home, to wiring that
wife's heart or ruin that mans life, but
she has done it, n sometimes cannot
ever see that it has been DONE.
And yet Others of this strange order
are fascinating almost in the fashion Of
the beautiful serpents to whom we also
apply this term. They repel, they rem
der those who see them anxious and I'M
easy; n breads and would avoid them,
but yet cannot keep away; their society
NoAlitb WIN IL "a olldhBc ALLIE hllOh, q
feeling of lightness and brightness and
e%xaltation, much like that produced by
a Whit of oxygen or a strong cup of cof-
fee; n feels tremulous with delight
and yet sick with the terror of some un.
Known calamity; it is q joyous pain OF
q painful joy, one knows not which, and
N knows not whether N would have
it or lose it.
The woman who can produce this of.
feet and produce it IN men and women
alike is the fascinating woman pure and
simple, and she may be handsome or
plain, young or middle aged, learned or
ignorant, high bred or of low estate, it
matters not which; she has her power, o
dangerous power, a magnificent power,
a fatal power, or a blessed power, as the
rest of her character may make it, but
it is a power before which all others
must wane and>pale.
This much of women, but l must say
one word of men. Have not you met
fascinating men in society; men who
have nothing, absolutely nothing, to at.
tract admiration or love, and yet fol
whom women are content to pay down
all that makes life dear? Ugly, uncouth,
poor, rude-all this they may be, but the
sweetest and daintiest women love them,
nay, dote oil them, worship them, and
why?
Because they have this power of fasci-
nation, this wonderful, inexplicable gift.
Is it perhaps the gift of the wicked fairy
who camel too late to the christening and
SO gave the fatal fair-seeming dowerf
Perhaps. Mrs. FRANK LESLIE.