Always a blush is spontaneous, uncontrollable; and

If there is any one thing a man likes to see, it is a spontaneous, an

uncontrollable action in woman.)

When the man has declared himself hers and hers alone; has given proof of

the truth of such declaration; has bound the woman to himself by terms

dictated by herself then, but not till then, the woman acts spontaneously

and without control; then she blushes. But

Seek not, impulsive masculine lover, to explore too many of the mysteries

of this thy feminine helpmeet. Perchance she feels herself so much above

thee that she blushes to give the herself. Perchance she regards thee so

much a symbol of the god-like, that she blushes for because she is not

more worthy. But far more probably she blushes for because she betrays

to thee a mortal, a divine and cosmic secret. For

There is a divine and cosmic secret hidden beneath every blush.

* * *

Ah! man, man, peccant, impulsive, passionate man, little knowest thou of

the divine and cosmic secret that underlies Love.

To thee, O man, it may be, 't is a momentary flash that irradiates the

world, and reveals for a moment a sky above that world;

To thee, O woman, 't is the reverberating thunder that, echoing, rolls

for ever after unceasing in thy ears. Is this why,

Between a man and a woman, a single look will sometimes change the

complexion of an intimacy of a life-time? And

Not until that look comes--not until eyes look into eyes with a

penetration supernatural--is acquaintanceship metamorphosed into love.

* * *

It is a favorite fiction amongst women that a rejected suitor either will

not marry or marries the first girl he meets. Because,

To marry another woman after having offered inalienable and unalterable

fidelity to one, would otherwise be a blow to "amour propere". And yet,

strangely enough, or perhaps not so strangely,

This is a fiction but rarely maintained with regard to her own cardiac

transportations. And for this reason:--

Woman is, and knows herself to be, a multiple personality;

Man, a tyro in emotions, is cast in a simpler mould. So,

A woman may donate herself piecemeal, or over and over again, yet deem

herself perfectly loyal.--And perhaps naturally and legitimately; for,

That man who will comprehend and appreciate all the intricacies of

feminine emotion . . . . . . . but there is no such being existent.

Indeed even

Self-revelation is a task no daughter of Eve has achieved.

* * *

Hints for Lovers · 第 119 / 141 题