Year: 1874




The averge woman hates a flea with
an Intensity almost diabolical In its ma
ture. She viii pursue one of these
little innocents with the remorseless-
ness of fend, and if you ever expect
to see beautiful emplificatiOn- of
womanly traits never look for it when
she knows that flea is about. And In
proportion as the woman hates, the flea
seems to love. and is never enjoying
ecstatic bliss unless favored with her
society. He likes to seek her couch in
the stIlly hours of the night, WOO her
from slumber, and from q sheltered
nook witness her feverish exertions to
escape his caresses; bit perhaps he
does not reach the acme of enjoyment
until he can slyly accompany her to
church and not make his presence
known until she has satisfactorily set
tied her furbelows and fiounces on the
cushioned seat all ready TO be admired
and make note of how others look.
And then the flea begins his manipula-
tions, mowing'full well that he has his
victim at a disadvantage. Here there
can be no hasty hingiDg of skirts, no
assuming of unbecoming pOsbures while
making frantic grabs at the misehievous
and inaccessible monster. If you note
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preston of the lip and look of hate
and pain creeping into the face which
she would fain conceal and not reveal,
for are not many eyes upon her? One
moment she settles herself little more
firmly on one side, as though hoping to
crush the sggressor, but the next mo-
mentfeels him seampering upward, when
she settles backward quickly 10 catch
him between her back and the rail, but
all in vain-his flag is still there. One
dainty gaiter may rub up against its
fellow as far as may be done without
disarrangiDg drapeTy, and there may be
a quiet, yet nevertheless vicious clutch
of jeweled hand under the preteA Ie
of arranging flowing drapery, but all in
vain. And the flea, how be does enjoy
it. He roams hither and thither at his
own sweet will, uncaring for the boiling
wrath which fairly makes the white
flesh upon which he plays shiver be-
meath his light tread. And perhaps
the flea has his mate, and then the an
gUish is doubled. At one moment they
are playing tag at another hide and
seek, and while the one is costly nestled
away, the other rushes hither and
thither to find it in a way which is
maddening and then they act the part
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and dale of the form divine. But one
thing they do not do, they do not
go to sleep. And during this hour
of martyrdom how the wrath of
the woman gathers, and how only
thoughts of dire vengeance make
the brief agony endurable. But at last
the service which has seemed so long is
ended, and with as much majesty as
her writhing form viii permit, she sails
home without lettering, you may be
sure. The house. reached, with one
bound she is within the privacy of her
own chamber, and there all restraint is
cast aside. With lightning haste off
come the barricades behind which the
flea found intrenchment, and at last she
stands like a gladiator stripped for the
fight, and then the fate of the invader
is sealed. He is pursued with remnrse-
less fury, and the battle does not end
until the victor shakes aloft the scalp
of the foe, and VOWS that so perish
always the flea who dares to invade the
sacred territory of her person. . ....