Too Practical.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 79

Too Practical.

The young woman, -her hair tossed carelessly by the «ighing zephyrs of the evening, her cheeks flushed with the glow of radiant health, and her lips parted in a bantering- smile, asked: ■"And am I really beautiful?" Now, the young man was a student— -lie ' •was a statistical student. Wishing to be «±aet and truthful in all things, he drew frcm his pocket a small notebook, turned to a, weil-fhumbed page, and read aloud: *' 'The perfectly beautiful woman. — The head should be a seventh part of the body— that is, the height should, be equal to seven heads."' * , ' I The girl looked at him. m wonder. ' "I should say," coirsnent-ed the young j man, "that you are not quite seven times j as high as your head ; but jsfciH— — " j "If I were seven times as high as my : hcid I should be 35 feet high," asserted i "iP doesn't mean that, Miss Fanshawe. It means that if your ihead were to be taken off and six more -like it rut on . the top of it, it would result in a row of heads that should canal ...you 1 height, if | you ware mathematically correct." i <■ "I'd like- -to see anyone attempt to take ©ff my head," murmured the girl. The young man returned to his book. " 'The eyebrows should be well marked, and the lashes should be long and sii»-y. Syes that are vhaped like almonds are the tnosfc beautiful/" •'And what is ths shape of my eyes? she demanded. *

j "To be honest," he replied, "they are something the shape of an egg." "Well, I'm glad they don't look like mon-Ir-ey muts," she sniffed. Still unconscious a! the trouble he was Tu-hing upon, he resumed. ' " 'Tlie nose should equal the forehead in length. Its thickness should be. in prcjportion to the features.' " i The girl's eyes gleamed dangerously. ! , "You shia'n't measure my nose !" she declared. - . r "Very well," answered tho scientific jyoufch. "LeS; us on. 'The chin should be deli-cately-rounded and free from indentation.' " She put a hand over the dimple in her icliin. " 'The hands should be long and plump, -with tapering fingers ' " i "Herbert Gregson," came from- beneath the hands, "you stop ! You g>et up and ,go home, aud Stay there until I send" for 'Sou.'' "When will that be?" 1 "Whenever I fin 1 a book of ixiles on how to tell whether a man has good sense."