The Girl Unrecommended.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 25, 21 December 1910, Page 58

The Girl Unrecommended.

Girls and girls. During the course of your highly tragic life (all lives are supposed io be highly tragic) you have met them all, as you supposed. There was the accomplished girl—the girl who could talk French and German like a native, who could play on the piano as if it were a part of her, who could sing like a nightingale. Such a girl, you are told, would be a queen anywhere, and when you are brought up, like a lamb to the slaughter, you tremble more than any captive before the mightiest tyrant of oiu. Then there is the desperate flirt, who has the reputation of always carrying it off. Her conquests appal you. Every day she slays her tens of thousands. And you, too, are vanquished —at least for a time —when you recover- like the rest, and go on your way rejoicing. There is the girl whose beauty is almost an international affair. To get near her is like being a depositor in a bank upon which there is a run. You always seem to be the last man in the line. There are others —girls of all grades, girls who have come to you with every species of recommendation under the sun; girls you have heard about, and read about, and been told about; girls ■with traits—the stylish girl, the spirituelle girl, the svelte girl, the hearty-rollicky-good-fellow girl, the kind, the lovable, the sympathetic, the cruel, the heartless, and the irresistible girl. And then, some day, when you are thinking about these other girls; when your mind and what there is left of your heart is dwelling on them; when you are flirting with them, talking with them, walking, and singing, and Maying, and playing, and riding, and fencing, and golfing, or, occupied with your own affairs, you are only thinking of them, who should come along but this girl—the girl who carries with her no recommendation, who comes unheralded and unsung, and whom you have never heard of before. - — - - It is a most singular thing about this girl. You think about it long after, and wonder. ■ ■ She has -fib accomplishments, or, at least, none th-at^you know or care about. ~ , Is she beautiful? ,You do not know. You. have never had time to ask the question. . Probably-^’ - not—to others. The only thing that you are proud of is the-fact that she is secretly beautiful to you in a way,that no one else knows about. And this is eminently satisfactory. No one else knows about her. No one else has found out. Talk about the mysteries of life—there’s one for you! That she should have gone on all this time, and only yourself in the whole world should have discovered her. C ould anything be more wonderful? Think of it! This girl without a single, solitary, recommendation from anyone—unheralded, unknown, unproclaimed —to think that, after all, she is the girl! It’s great, isn’t it?