The Washington herald., 1917-10-03
The Complete Angler.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
he Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

A girl OF 10 writes me that she Is
very much in love with a young
doctor, and she wants to know
whether she shall disclose the state
says that he has never made love TO
her, but that she can tell that he
is madly devoted to her by the look
in his eyes. and she is afraid that II
she does not let him know that she
loves him he will wander of after
some other girl.
1t is to laugh and It is to cry, to
read SUCH a letter. Poor little girl
fisher. starting out to angle for mas
the first principle of the art, or even
what bait to use on her hook. No
wonder that she doesn't catch any,
thing, or get even a nibble of senti-
ment out of her young man, or that
she is driven to imagining that he is
filed with unutterable longings in
stead of hearing them expressed viva
vocei
OF course there is no use in telling
sweet sixteen that she Is too young
to know what love really is. because
it Is only at that age that we believe
that we are in the throes of a death
less and unchanging passion. After
we have experience several Geathless
and urchanging passions for differ
ent individuals, we begin to discount
our emotions.
Nor is there any use In telling a
young girl that no woman in the
world has ever been wise enough, nor
psychic enough, to read what is in
a mans eyes or tell from the way
he looks at her what he really thinks
of her. Two things bar her from
this knowledge. One is that when a
woman looks in a mans eyes she sees
there only what she wants to see.
They become a mirror that reflects
her own desires. The other thing is
that the light that lies in a mans
eyes lies, and lies, and lies.
Still less is there any use in tell
ing a girl that men are not bashful
about asking for what they want, and
that no man who really loves a wom-
an keeps silent about it. The John
Aldens who are afraid to do their
own counting are pretty figures in
poetry. but they do not exist in real
life. The minute a man feels that
some particular girl is the only girl
in the world for him. he hastens
TO impart the glad information to
! her. and he keeps on monologuing
about until she shuts off his flow
of oratory on the subject by accom-
| panying him to the altar.
But perhaps sweet sixteen will lis
| ten to the reiteration of the old bro
midic truth that nature has made
man the pursuer. and implanted in his
| breast a horror of being pursued, and
that this makes it fatal thing for
a woman to take the initiative in love-
making. This is why the women who
wear their hearts on their sleeves
never have any man troubling to pick
them off. and why women who are
openly husband hunters never bring
down their quarry.
The peach that a man Graves is
the one that hangs highest on the
| tree. not the overripe one that is
ready to drop into his mouth. The
bird that he stalks through tireless
! days and nights is the wary one that
| is always on the wing. not the fame
barnyard fowl that is ready to come
and eat out of his hand at his first
pipe. And the woman that he wants
most is the woman who wants him
| least. This is a constitutional pecu-
| liarity of man. Thus is he built,
and there is no use in arguing with
the specifications.
For this reason in the love gamble
between the sexes woman's one best
! bet is always being uncertain, coy
and hard to please. Naturally she
must first pique mans interest in
her by her good looks, or her charm
of manner, or her intelligence of con-
versation. Even the modest violc,
must have astuteness enough to grow
in a mans pathway so he cannot
fail to see it. IL it ever hopes to adorn
his buttonhole. But having walked q
man up to the perception that she
is easy on the eyes to look at. and
agreeable to talk to. the girls next
play is to lie low and simulate in
difference.
Let her make the man feel that
she regards him as merely one among
those also present. pleasant enough
but nothing to set a girl crazy.
l. Above all, let her make him feel