through thick and thin—secretly, it may be, for
often the girl,
nevertheless devotedly, and only under compulsion
will he listen to the
detractor: he may desert her, or, if he sticks to
her, he may beat her;
no matter: he holds her heart in the hollow of
his hand. But, But,
Few things mystify poor law-abiding man than
this, that the central, the profoundest, the most portentous puzzle of the
universe—the weal of woe of two high-aspiring, much-enduring, youthful human
souls, should be the sport of what seems to him the veriest and merest chance.
* * *
The unconscious search of sweet sixteen is for
(in mathematical language
which will not sophisticate her) the integral of
love.—Yet
In the short years between sixteen and twenty a
girl’s love will undergo rapid and startling developments.
* * *
A girl with lots of brothers has more chances of
matrimony than a girl
with none: she knows more of men; especially of
their weaknesses and
idiosyncrasies.
And
To know the weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of men
is perhaps a wife’s chief task; unless it be to put up with them.
* * *
Often enough the freckled and fringrant girl wins
over the professional beauty.
* * *
Sometimes grown-up girls are just as shy as
little ones—and for the same reasons because there is no one who knows how to
play with them.
Girls often play with love as if it were one of
the amusements of life; but a day comes when love proves itself the most
sensuous thing on earth.
And
A girl is quick to discover the kind of love that
is required of her. As
a rule
Many a girl who has been sore put to it to prove
herself whole-hearted.
For of course,
Always every suitor expects whole heartedness.
And this every girl
instinctively knows. Indeed,
Is not a half-hearted love, or a half-hearted
acceptress of love, a contradiction in terms?
* * *