The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-03
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s1ke MINUET of LOYE

Still" unused Kitty with a medita- tive smile, its rather interesting.
 Whats rather tnterestinsr oe- manded. March or--
 ..Not to know explained Kitty. There wouldn't be any fun If the weather or a woman was monotonous- ly pleasant all the time, would there?'
 No" I agreed doubtfully. nor If either of them stormed all the time.
 "It's the uncertainty" continued Kit ty. picking her way daintily along the edge of the path, that makes love or the weather or a woman interesting. Love isn't a waltz in which you go round and round in the same old cir cle. holding on to one another; it's minuet in which you go forward and backward and chasse--
 And dodge"
 And baiance."
 And salute your partner.
 And then salute somebody elses partner. added Kitty wickedly. look ing up at me sidewise from under the brim of her hat. And the girl who can keep on chasseeing and lodging and backing the most gracefully and the longest without stepping on anybody else's toes or his egotism Is the one who wins the-the prize"
 "Or the man." finished. But un- less you know the rules of the dance and follow them religiousiy and are an expert on sidestepping and reversing and turning corners, you are likely Co get mixed up and entangied in all sorts of uncomfortable situations and com promising positions and--%F
 T know it." sighed Kitty. I'm in one now" and in her absorption she put one patent leather-shod foot delib- erately Into puddle.
 Get out of it." I exclaimed, Feferr- ing to the puddle. @Go back"
 T can't" protested Kitty, walking heedlessly straight through the mud, without cutting him"
 greaned.
 q suppose you've been making somebody else think you cared for him?'' I, muttered reproachfully.
 T suppose I have" agreed Kitty. That's so easy. The trouble is that I made him think he cared for me-"
 That ought to be easy, too," re- marked considering your dimples."
 ''Ch, but it wasn'tp declared Kitty, putting both hands in her nun and trudging on hurriedly. That's why I did it. Everybody said couldn't. You see. he is very spoiled and conceited. and rich and eligible, and popular and cynical and blase and-and things. And it wasn't my dimpies that did 1t. It was my method"
 foh, I see" I exclaimed. Tt was the way you lodged and balanced and
 'Yes," agreed Kitty but first of all 1t was the way l 'saluted.'"
 ."what7'
 "F1attered him, MT. Curtis; and in- vited him to call. and was charming and pleasant and sympathetic and in- terested. and talked to him about him. self and his ambitions and his fascin- ations and"
 f"Fed him sugar and tafry and com Dlimenfafs I int6rpreted .. -"Yes," acquiesced Kitty. And then just as he was beginning to think he had added another scalp to his collec- ton I--retreated. -" And Kitty gur- gled behind her muff.'
 whats thatp' I demanded.
 Its what they do in the minuet." explained Kitty. T backed-sidestep- ped, you know. That's what a girl does when she's out when you call. and doesn't see you unless she stuTn- bles over you, and never has dance left for you and forgets to acknowl- edge your roses or to keep her engage. ments with you, and glances beyond you, or over you, or through you when you speak. And, of course" added Kitty, as though the matter were def inItely settled. he became-interes- ted"
 "of course" agreed. And then you chasseed :"
 I
 That's what a girl does," I retort- ed, when she keeps you in constant state of doubt and hope. It's a sort of seesaw, in which when you go up she goes down, when you take a step for ward. she takes one backward, when you smile she frowns, and when you sigh she smiles; when you ask for dance or an engagement she refuses you, and when you start to go away angry she calls you back; when you become indignant and naughty she be- comes tender and sentimenal, and then, just as you get off your guard. and your pedestal ane attempt to be sentimental she-
 why how do you know all that, Mir. CurtisY' interrupted Kitty in astonish-
 "oh. I've seen eat playing with a mouse" I replied nonchalantly. "Its very brutal game!"
 its a very difficult one" sighed Kitty, gazing pensively up at the drip why so many women fail at it. Chas- seeing is the most perpiexing figure in the minuet of love. A woman is so likely to let a man get too far away far enough either to forget her or to find another woman: or to become dis gusted or indiffeSent or tired of the game. Or else the minute, he turns his back on her she flies into a panic and sends him notes and sofa pillows and apologies and pipe racks, And then of course it is all over with her and the game Is in his hands; and even # he does come back, which he usually doesn't. 1t is he who makes the terms and she who becomes the mouse and is played with and kept in doubt and hope and hot water for the rest of her life. 'Its knowing just how many steps to take forward and how many to take backward and just when to stop chasseeing that constitutes success in love or the minuet. wo- man can be so anxious to go forward that a man will back out of the game or the dance altogether, or she can be so backward that he gets tired of fol- lowing her"
 -"Yes," agreed. "There isn't any fun | in chasing a squirrel that you know you are never going to catch, and there isn't any fun ins shooting one