ry real physical pain. There are no tears for times like
these; the inner depths, bare and quivering, are healed by no such balm
as this.

A sudden blow leaves a woman as cold as a marble statue and absolutely
dumb as to the thing which lies upon her heart. When the tears begin to
flow, it means that resignation and content will surely come. On the
contrary, when once or twice in a lifetime a man is moved to tears,
there is nothing so terrible and so hopeless as his sobbing grief.

Married and unmarried women waste a great deal of time in feeling sorry
for each other. It never occurs to a married woman that a spinster may
not care to take the troublous step. An ideal lover in one's heart is
less strain upon the imagination than the transfiguration of a man who
goes around in his shirt-sleeves and dispenses with his collar at ninety
degrees Fahrenheit.

[Sidenote: The Unknown Country]

If fiction dealt pleasantly with men who are unmindful of small
courtesies, the unknown country beyond the altar would lose some of its
fear. If the way of an engaged girl lies past a barber shop,--which very
seldom has a curtain, by the way,--and she happens to think that she may
some day behold her beloved in the dangerous act of shaving himself, it
immediately hardens her heart. One glimpse of one face covered with
lather will postpone one wedding-day five weeks. Many a lover has
attributed to caprice or coquetry the fault which lies at the door of
the "tonsorial parlour."

[Sidenote: Other Feminine Eyes]

A woman may be a mystery to a man and to herself, but never to another
woman. There is no concealment which is effectual when other feminine
eyes are fixed upon one's small and harmless schemes. A glance at a
girl's dressing-table is sufficient for the intimate friend--she does
not need to ask questions; and indeed, there are few situations in life
in which the necessity for direct questions is not a confession of
individual weakness.

If fourteen different kinds of creams and emollients are within easy
reach, the girl has an admirer who is fond of out-door sports and has
not yet declared himself. If the curling iron is kept hot, it is because
he has looked approval when her hair was waved. If there is a box of
rouge but half concealed, the girl thinks the man is a fatuous idiot and
hourly expects a proposal.

If the various drugs are in the dental line, the man is a cheerful soul
with a tendency to be humorous. If she is pa