A WOMAN ON MEN.

Evening Post, Volume XLIII, Issue 61, 12 March 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

A WOMAN ON MEN.

What gulls men are ! A woman has but to lay in a stock of the cheapest soft sawder to have them fumbling into the female net with amazing facility. Let me put you au courant to the situation. We came here for a big shoot, and things are 'beginning to hum," as the Americans say. Amid the sweet repose and rural retirement of Castle Wildfell I had time for "great thinks," and came to the unrighteous conclusion that to retain the pristine glow of a husband's affection it is advisable to give him a twinge of active uneasiness, by embarking on sundry small flirtations. Do not misunderstand mo lam the discreeteat Canute in petticoats, - and cry sternly to the waves as they come rolling to my feet, "So far shalt thou go!" But it does not answer to sit at the base of the pedestal in a devotional attitude, and give no faintest trouble. Between you and me and the post, Arthur was growing too confident, too secure. Theoretically it is a fine thing to be trusted, but depend upon it a grain of uncertainty is piquante flavouring to the plat of conjugal love. It is an error to allow men to take virtue and devotion for granted, for they quickly learn to regard those inestimable privileges as matters of course, like a matutinal cigarette or a fur coat, warm and comforting, but " mine own " for the out-stretching of a finger. The jealous husband has been the laughing stock of centuries, and every man's hand and every woman's tongue is against him ; but then the husband who is not jealous is an insensible fool, especially provided for the delectation and encouragement of the male rampant. The marital path is verily paved with eggshells, and steering clear of the Scylla of ridicule, and yet avoiding the Charybdis of convenience, is an admirable test of fact and quality. Having discovered that the man to whom I was engaged, and the man whom I married, possessed two distinct individualities, I determined to recall the one, and exorcise the other. This careless lotus-eating Arthur was too much married, and I felt it my duty to show him that the slave and chattel was capable of hoisting a little crimson flag of freedom, and was weary of leaving agreeable attentions and successes to Golightly sirens. I love Arthur with my whole heart — ca va sans dire — but in my youthful inexperience I have betrayed this fact too plainly, and consequently his love burns slower and heavier as rtflP*" *^ets up more steam. It is esj[ , to dissemble, and men behavo »r more satisfactorily when titillated by frisky callousness into a wholesome anxiety.