The San Francisco call., 1913-09-05

And none know whence
Or why they rise"
Coventry Patmore.
ssY Tow," writes some lover every
/ l day in the week. 'can I tell if
she loves me?"
He is very nice to me and wants
10 be with me every evening, but he
never says word about love-" writes
some distressed little girl. How
can I tell if he loves me? What are
the signs of lover"
They are as varied and interesting
and uncertain as the signs Of storm
or a fair day, and no one can de-
scribe the symptoms in one mans
case that will apply TO the symptoms
IN another.
Love is not like the measles.
q Love-" rhymes Pakenham Beatty,
''comes to some with smiling eyes
and comes with tears to some; for
some Love sings, for some Love sighs,
for some Loves lips are dumb"
Two persons will stand before a
wonderful scene. One will burst into
exclamations of pleasure and ad-
miration, exhausting his vocabulary
and growing almost maudlin in his
attempt TO express his delight The
other will stand dumb with awe at
the miracle. yet no one may say that
his admiration is less than his noisy
neighbor's.
SOME SIGNS
Tt is the same with love Some
laugh from morning till night and
pass into dreamland with smiles on
their faces and others seem almost
paralyzed through awe of this great
wonder that life has brought them.
And there are others who will agree
with John P. Brown, who wrote: The
sign of those who are tormented by
loves passion is tears; above all, of
that Tover who finds none to sympa-
thize with him.
If there are any who imagine that
the dimensions and capacity of the
heart may be measured as one meas
ures the capacity and dimensions OF
a cistern. let him learn to the con-
trary form as great an authority on
love as Marie Corelli:
Facts and figures" she writes,
'can 70 a certain extent be relied on,
but the fluctuating humors and va
garies of a man and woman in love
with each other are beyond the most
precise calculations of the skilled
mathematician. For IT often happens
that when they seem TO be coidest.
they are warmest-and cases have
been known where they have taken
the greatest pains to avoid each other
at a time when they have most deep
ly ionged to be together"
THE PERyERsE IMP.
Sometimes with the perversity of
the human heart, which no one can
explain or account for, girls and boys
assume their worst behavior, and are
in their most unattractive moods.
when in the presence of those they
long TO attract 1t is as if they put
on a garment the seamy side out
when the occasion calls for the finest
apparel.
The girl who knows the man she
loves abominates slang will use more
when. he is present than on any other
occasion. Men are rudest when gem
tleness is the trait their lady loves
admire most. Loudest when silence
is more appealing and pugnacious
when the little girl whose favor they
seek is a lover of peace.
So one may not define this tender
passion as if it were as tangible as a
spring hat or a rock wall, nor at
tempt TO describe 1t. The glorious
Characteristic of love and its univer-
sal trait is that somewhere, some
how, II finds expression at last. It
may be strangely dumb in the begin
ming. so dumb the little heart that
waits for its avowal begins to ache,
but the dumbest love breaks silence
at last. and when the time comes the
Joy more than compensates for the
waiting.
To be sure that ii is Love, the Love
for life, and not the little imp which
masquerades as Love, and which has
its origin more in fervid magma
ton than in the heart, apply to the
sentiment that is crowding every
other emotion out of your being. this
test poem by Elizabeth Barrett
Browning:
Unless you can think, when the song
is done.
No other is soft in the rhythm;
Unless you can feel, when left by
One,
That all men else go with him;
Unless you can know, when upraised
by his breath.
That your beauty itself wants
proving;
Unless you can swear. For life, or
deathl'-
o. fear to call it loving"