Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-07-31

attention Gas ~ nrxx attracted 70 the
sport By peFceiyiag her dlsturt~noe-aa
fact, If the expression Is not too coarse.
! could not but perceive that she WAS
-squirming" in q manner suggestive Of
some unseen bat vicious hrrle enemy
such IS are the constant danger Of tray
elers IN Europe. Ii was not long. how
ever, before l perceived that the poor
little brides sssaiiant wss firt. snd POS
flea. and ! syinlathized with her all
the more sincerely that her troubles IN
VOWED no Danger 10 myself.
Ii was r liy al artistic study 70
watch the proceedings Of the next few
days: the growing annoyance and ter
ror Of the bride; the fioanderings and
plungings Of the victim before he fairly
swallowed tie hook, and his perfect IN
fatuation and docility when he had done
60: also the cynical interest with which
the firt's father, very wicked old
gentleman. rs | should judge, watched
his daughters manenvers. As for the
fiirt herself. feel deeply indebted to
her for the insight she afforded me into
the science Of her fsvorits amusement.
l never saw any flirting done SO me-
thodically, so calmly and SO unrelent-
ingly. don't think the girl herself
was in the least moved either to fancy
the man or pity the woman or care for
the consequences TO either; she simply
pursued her amusement with just the
dispassionate aud educated interest with
which the angler lands his trout or the
entomologist nets and pins his butterfly.
But just before we were to leave Luz
cerne took occasion to suggest to the
bride that it was pity her father and
mother should not have a peep at the
lakes during this lovely weather. and
that if were III her place | should
write and urge them TO join herself and
her husband at once.
Poor child! She flushed rosy red and
glanced at me with . big interrogation
mark in each eye. but l only laughed
and kissed her goodby.
Another variety is the infantile fiirt-
the young woman who carries the in
genue business To its bitter end and
thrusts her baby hands into mems heart
strings as ruthlessly rs veritable in
FAINT would make tatters of the priceless
lace vestments Of the pope himself.
The ingenue business belongs to that
school of superb cunning advocated by
Edgar Poe in his story of 1.-THE Pur-
Joined Letter" where the apparent alb
sence of al guile is the very essence Of
deep diplomacy. Nothing can be more
effective If it is conscientiously done
and artistically carried out, and the -
iantile firt is one of the most successful
practitioners Of her peculiar art. II
might be supposed that methods 60
simple as hers would have been faith
omed and exposed long since, bat the
truth remains that each successive gene
ration of men is just as simple and just
as easily deceived as the previous one,
and that no man ever allows himself to be
warned either by the experience of his
predecessors or the voiceeof the women
belonging to him, although thy eagerly
seek to betray the EttR affifices and
pretensee of the infantile flirt. The
great trouble with most men h that they
think themselves SO wiz already thai
they decline to listen to the words Of
wisdom from those who know more thar
they do.
Beyond these three gFeas classes thers
are several others and great many Of
what may be styled eclectic practition
ers; fiirts who pursue all methods. as &C