Year: 1870

Filtration.


There are, We regret to write it; bu


the truth must be told, women who hav,


passion for flirting and nothing else. Al


first it is little more to them than {


renchant might be for lobster salad, a


thing to be desired on occasions, after the


ball or at picnic, but from frequen,


indulgence in varieties of the sport, j,


seizes upon them, as desire for drams


does upon an Incorporate person. They


cannot subsist without the excitation ol


having a dangerous pet about them, a


man mouse to stroke, or man spaniel to


fetch and carry. At first they are entirely


innocent of feeling other than that OF


mere wantonness, but after a while they
learn the secret and revolving delights Of
cruelty. This arrives, this wicked, un-
womnnly sense, from a special experience.
Amongst the Lying object Of amusement
in the circle Of the airt, there turns up
one who happens to entertain serious
attachment for the lady. She knows it
quickly enough, and is here tried Ly a
host Of temptations, the common result of
the codes of society. She has learned to
distrust love. Marriage means settle
ment, and comfortable one love, with
out a good establishment, means a


bothering, affectionate husband, with
limited possibilities Of satisfying a taste
for dress and amusement, succession of
children who cannot be slowed out of
sight, q sinking from the level in which
one drives ones carriage while single, and
so on. But although my lady has no
intention of marrying her admirer, that is
no obstacle to having good d.al of fun
out of him. He can be made jealous and
to look miserable; he can be coaxed and
made to look happy he can be thrown q
smile to humble and play with; he can
be made useful as q foil, or as decoy
duck to attract fowl better worth the
plucking; and so he is kept on hand.
Now, there are great many men who
once in their lives, at least are capable of
putting up from one woman with this sort
of treatment. They discover and curse
heir folly at last, and do not retire into
as romancists occasionally
represent, and languish for years in the
midst Of sheep farm. But they carry
sharp pain with them wherever they 20.
They have lost belief. Their ideal of wo-
has become degraded, not be-
cause woman has had the bad taste to
refuse their evertures, but that woman
of, to them, the most attractive qualities,
has used them with shameless and most
apfeeling unconcern. And the woman
herself?


She has tasted the fatal banquet and


ooses all palate for other food. She picks
up fresh victim when she changes her
spots, and has been known to fly at a
country curate after chasing very differ
ent quarry in town. And this gees on
season after season, until her power
begins to fade with the false light of her
eyes and the bloom of her cheeks. The
Nemesis of Irritation at last overtakes her.
She has, to use course phrase, lost her
market time. The men are eager now to
be of, when she would have them advance.
Every newspaper in which she reads the
chronicle of the marriage of an acquain,
tance gives her bitter pang. keen sting.
She is quite capable of weeping real tears,
in the character Of bridesmaid, but the
tears are salted with spite that she is not
the bride herself. Old dramatists said
cruel things Of this type of female, and
even shouted them after her when she had
passed out Of life. Let US be more char.
liable. Let US believe that the decayed
fiirt is prepared for her closing state by a
fortunate uncoAsciousness Of its reality.
So shall she hope and, ogle to the last, a
sad spectacle. bat not ut all an unusual
one. But Irritation affects other women
in different manner. Women of strong
romantic tcmperaments are perpetually
themselves in love. They have q
series OF heroes on whom they expend
their emotions, and wish for an inter
changed which frightens them when it
comes. or real love, they are incapable
Of love, that is, demanding sacrifice, hon.
orable submission, loyalty, and supreme
faith. At best, if they had not spoiled
their faculties by drugging them with
they might have settled into
mothers with turn for the nursery, and
perhaps exhibit the accomplishment of
keeping the antenuptial glamour over the
eyes of their husbands, but flirting des>
troys their domestic prospects. Should
they drop in at the church door they can.
not shake off the memories so easily. And
when vexed afterwards at triae, these
creatures will nope in secret over the
image of some man they never sincerely
cared button for, but who happened to
have cut figure in the series above mem
toned. 1t is these pulling, nonsensical
wives that sometimes drive men out Of
their wits, helpless and tortured, while
the whimpering and the nagging proceeds
with desolate unity Of intention


Gentlemen's Magazine.


The Common Crimes Of Conversation.


There are the careless people, those
''who know the right, and yet the wrong
Ill.,