PRETTY COMPLIMENTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XXIII, 4 June 1898, Page 718

PRETTY COMPLIMENTS.

There are natures so delicately constructed that compliments must be given by subtle implication ; there are other s who will only relish the sweet when it is given with the most disarming frankness as though drawn from the giver by deep conviction—a compliment delivered in a manner free from sentiment, and as though speaking of an obvious fact of universal recognition. There are those who shrink from flattery and see in it insincerity. These can be reached by the more insidious ways of action. Nothing is more pleasing than to encounter one who listens with absorbed and eager attention, or one who remembers with unvarving accuracy one’s preferences in small affairs. The smaller they are, the more charming is the remembrance. In short, there is scarcely anyone who does not enjoy compliments if tact is used in the giving. When it is between those who might l>e supposed to have had sentiment rubbed away by the attrition of time and daily intercourse, it is especially appealing. On one of the crowded tramcars which nin from a large city into the suburbs was a middle-aged couple. The wife was seated, the man was swayed from a strap to which he clung uncomfortably. She turned her plain, unhandsome face toward him, saying: * I am sorry you have to stand.’ For reply, he smiled and said : ‘ I would always rather stand by you than sit down away from -you.’ It was a bit of sentiment all the prettier for being among commonplace people in a commonplace situation. In the drawing-room of a summer hotel sat an old Quaker and his wife. They had lieen married over fifty years. ‘ Thee looks like a peach this evening,’ he said. ‘ Walk out on the verandah with me and show thyself,’ and he tucked the sweet-looking lady’s hand within his own and promenaded up and down among the couples of gay young folk who were airing their fresh beauty; but to him nothing was so lovely as his dainty little companion, and none among the girls felt more content than she after her husband’s pretty compliment. On the parade a young woman meets an elderly man. ‘ Ah, good morning’! Where are you going?’ is his greeting. ‘ Why, I was looking for you,’ was the response, with the most charming smile, Iwth knowing it to be an untruth. ‘ How delightful!’ exclaimed the man. ‘ Now that is what I am always beseeching Florence about. If she would only turn a compliment as readily as you !’ ‘ Florence ’ was probably quite too sincere, and found it difficult work to get along in the ultra-fashionable world without the small coin of insincere compliment from which her truthful soul revolted. She was probably one of the literal kind, with Puritan ancestry, and scorned the light touch-and-go of the easy exchange of the bright though meaningless compliment which, nevertheless, has its uses in certain circlesand is tolerable among those schooled in the same sort of persiflage. Those are happiest who take their compliments like all other sweets, as something light and unnecessary, but pleasant to the palate, although contributing nothing to growth ; pleasant but superfluous, and creating a mental dyspepsia it partaken of too freely.