r helping her to play it.

The Female Flirt.

A woman in the first class of flirts is possibly more dangerous than
the man. She has no heart, only insatiable vanity. She uses her powers
on all who come in her way, regardless of any claim another of her sex
may have upon them. Lover, husband, and friend, they are all fair game
for her, and if hearts are damaged, well, she is always sure that her
own will remain intact. Her veracity is as elastic as her conscience.
Her charms are equalled by her unscrupulousness.

She will keep the youth in bondage without the slightest intention of
ever marrying him. She will fool the mature man who is desperately in
earnest, while she is angling after some one wealthier or more
amusing. If she does elect to wed one of her victims, it is, in all
probability, only to carry out her devastating tactics on a larger
scale.

Kindly, Spontaneous Flirts.

The members of the second class, men and women, are charming without
being dangerous. They love the society of the other sex; they have the
art of pleasing and make use of it, but they play the game fairly.
There is no poaching, no snares are laid for the unwary, and if harm
is done it is because people have misunderstood them. The man flirts
because he loves {38} to say pretty things to a woman. He revels in an
interchange of banter and repartee which makes her eyes sparkle and
his pulses beat the faster. The girl flirts out of the abundance of
her joyous vitality. She suits herself to the companion of the hour.
She knows nothing of the tender passion, she is not taking life quite
seriously yet, but she has the delicacy to draw back when she sees
danger signals in the eyes or the lingering clasp of her friend's
hand. She will not make a fool of him. She is too straight for that.

Withdrawing Gracefully.

It is no easy matter to change the course of things when one has
drifted into a flirtation. It behoves a girl then to choose her man
carefully, and not to place herself in any false position towards him.
If he is not chivalrous enough to take a delicately conveyed hint, he
will only imagine that she is playing a more subtle game of coquetry,
and by redoubling his attentions make himself the reverse of
agreeable. No man with any regard for the most elementary rules of
etiquette would either embarrass a lady by keeping up a tone that she
had even indirectly discouraged, or insult her by insinuating that she
had led him on.

He