Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-04

T7HERES everything, nowadays, in know.
ing when man means business and
when he's just passing the time away,
IEl1S3gll said the girl behind the counter, medi-
- tatively, she began fashioning the
long ribbon into rosette.
=, That's true" agreed the floor walker. "This
tnlng OF fellows hanging around year in and
year out ought to be cut out It's not tar to
tne girl. He either ought to manage to put her
wise somehow or else dig out. It's only decent
TO let her know where she stands"
The girl behind the counter shifted contemptu.
ously It'd take a pretty wise guy nowadays
to keep girl from knowing where she stands.
Why, the fellow can't breathe without her know
ing all about it. Trust her for knowing when he
means business and when he's only using her par
lor because he's too poor to go out with the
boys"
ooh, come off You don't mean girl can
really get on, do you?"
"I'd like to know why she can't" she replied
aggressivey.
"Any man can fool girl tell you. It's a
cinch He can come around one night and act
as if he thought she was the only pebble on the
beach, and the next night he can be just as
much gone on the girl next door. He can be
just crazy to make a date with her, and then
when the time comes he may show up and then
again he may not. He can keep steady. company
with her for months or even years, and then turn
around and marry somebody else. The chances
are IeH 10 one S0e UnOuRnJ Sne ndQ MIN Cllnchod
and all the time he was laughing up his sleeve
because she was struck on herself Take my
word for it, it's a pretty slow sort of a fellow
that can't keep girl guessing"
That's all you know about it," said the girl
behind the counter There's not a girl with
grain of sense who doesn't know months ahead
of time when her best young man is going to pop
the question, and very few who cannot 90 so
far as to set the night and consequently be able
to get into their glad rags in honor of the oc.
casion"
The floor walker looked at her in astonishment
and admiration. "Is that straight? I didn't
know girls were that smart"
'You must thought they were dead easy"
she said with an air of superiority. "But let me
tell you, they weren't born yesterday--not by
long sight No, I'm busy now," she replied to
the query of customer, as she gave the rosette
few ostentatous pulls. Then when the custom
er had moved on, she added conhdentially to the
floor walker, "These people are so i'll bred. They
never can see when they interrupting you"
That's so. But tell me, how do girls get wise
to whether fellow means business not"
"Oh, yes. That put it clear out of
my mind Why, it's easy enough. They Just
have to notice how he acts. Everybody knows
man behaves differently when he is in love and
when he is in natural state of mind"
Natural state of mind! Why, don't you
think that being in love is natural state of
mind"
"How can it be? Just as soon as man begins
to think that a certain girl is the main squeeze
he Immediately contracts the habit of doing all
sorts of fool stunts that he would never have
thought of doing before"
"Such as what?"
-'Well in the first place, he can't seem to see
anybody but just one girl. He seems to have
suddenly gotten. tired of all the other girls in
town, to have gotten used to butting up to one
house every night in the week. whether he has
license or not. He keeps steady company with
one lone female week in and week out, wearing
out her parlor furniture and using up the gas
until he has to produce quarter to put in the
meter"
II don't see how that goes to prove anything"
objected the floor walker He might come
around all the time like that just because it was
the cheapest way of passing his evenings. No
admission charged-free entertanment-what YOU
call cnch."
Nothing of the kind" replied the girl behind
the counter Il won't deny that lots of fellows
do that kind of thing, but you can spot the man
in love every time. He doesn't save any money
on the deal; in fact, at this stage of the game
he often lives beyond his income"
''But how? He surely doesn't throw it all away
on the girl?
"He sure does. 1t would only cost him cou-
ple of dollars to go with the boys, but Just look
at what he spends when he takes her to - the
atre And then there flowers and candy and
books--it all counts up | tell you, and by
the time the ghost walks he is generally pretty
hard up"