The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-05-12

iantly conquered the opportunity and
confessed his love and offered his hand
and heart the traditional woman is very
much astonished at the unforeseen dec
1aration and in tremor of sweet confu-
| sion utterly denies any reciprocal fond
ness. Then siege begins wherein the
man, bold, aggressive, persistent, de-
molishes the defensive works wherein
| the woman has intrenched herself, re-
| fuses to take no for an answer, and final
| ~ by courage and perseverance conquers
| all opposition and secures the prize.
| Well, now I ask again, Are these the
| facts, in the case, 0 woman, so far as you
are able to testify?
You know they are not, know they
are not. and every woman in the world.
| if sufficiently civilized to know anything,
| knows they are not.
The man Is attracted to the woman.
| He asks an introduction perhaps, and the
acquaintance begins on his part with a
vague feeling OF distrust and curiosity.
| He does not in the very least understand
| this charming sphinx, and although con-
| Tossing her charm is in his heart afraid of
| what she may develop. He has-that Is,
| all sensible men haye-an innate con-
seriousness that the subtlety, the quick
| ness, the unexpecteGness of a woman's
maneuvers are far out of reach of his
| comprehension, and he awaits what she
will do and say with very much the feel
| ing Watt and Fulton may have had when
| they first set their steam engines going
| and stood by in admiring awe, uncertain
whether this wonderful new agent they
had evoked would destroy them in one
splendid flash or deign to follow their
lead and prove blessing to them and
mankind.
Should the woman thus approached
feel disposed to torment her tentative
lover, she has thousand ways of doing
so. She laughs at his sentimental
speeches. She fails to understand his
clever compliments. She asks him iron
ical and teasing questions with an air of
seraphic innocence and ingenious desire
for information. She entertains him
with praises of his rival. She cares
nothing for boating, which is the end
and aim of his being, and dotes upon
horses, of which he knows nothing.
Then, when she sees him utterly daunt-
ed and defeated, when she sees, in fact,
that the courage which should have sus-
tanned him is utterly exhausted, and he
is about to seek safety in flight, she
flashes upon him smile, long, sweet
look, tone, a gesture, word, and he is
at her feet again.
Perhaps, on the other hand, the wom-
an is attracted to the man who has hard
ly noticed her. She is not delayed IN her
approaches by any sense of doubt or
mystery; she does not in the least look
upon the object of her regard as a
sphinx or a mystery; she is not at all
afraid of him or of what he may do
or say; she understands his nature so far
at least as she needs to for her present
purposes, and she feels instinctively that
she has the battle in her own hand; she
goes into the fray-that is to say, into the
sweet combat of love-with calm and as
sured courage, while he, as we have said,
is tremulous with that fear of the I'M
known which is the most demoralizing
of all fears. We will suppose that she
really desires this man as a husband and
does not, as in the former case, wish
merely to amuse herself with conuuering
him. Her tactics are now altogether diff
ferent, and the theory held by man of
what woman is and should be is based
upon the course pursued by a woman in
love who intends permanent result
from her passion.
She now shows herself gentle, docile,
thirsting for information upon any sub
ject the man fancies himself learned in,
let it be boots or horses. Aristotle or Bis
marck, pork or grain or sloyd or theoso-
ply or finance. No matter which of |
these or a hundred more does ne dis |
course upon, it is the one subject on !
which she has always longed to be in |
formed, and she combines with the inno- |
cent ignorance of the dove so much of |
the wise intelligence and guickness of |
the serpent that the man, fooled to the |
top of his bent, is presently ready to de- |
clare that such sweet and suggestive |
sympathy is precisely what he has al !
ways needed to enable him to carry out |
his life's work, and if he can only secure /
it as his own, etc.
Or, if the declaration is not so easily |
reached, if the mans inherent cowardice |
holds him back even while his love urges |
him forward, how the woman's calm |
courage and self command enable her to |
general the situationl How quietly she |
gives him the opportunity which he new |
er could have found for himself! How |
easily and gently she guides the CONVEX |
sation into the channel, conducting by |
easy if sinuous reaches to the desired
haven! With what tact she interprets
his awkward, stam1nering phrases and |
puts into his mouth turns of speech |
which he dimly desired, yet never could |
hare originated! And all the time, like |
the acting commander in a battle, she |
leaves the baton in the hands of the mar |
shall, who sits in the shade and looks on. |
The page killed the boar; |
the knight had the gloire,
and the man goes away from the scene |
of his betrothal with the step and mien |
of a conqueror and thinks to himself |
what dear, sweet, gentle, docile little |
wife he is to have, and what a clever fell |
low he is to have drawn that timid con- |
fession of love from her reluctant lips.