THE MALE FLIRT .
BY ELLEN ASHTON . " HAVE you seen Mrs. Gordon since she returned from Europe ?" said James Ewing to his friend Henry Alford, as they stood on the steps of the Astor House, "Her widowhood has not impaired her charms ; she is even more beautiful than when she left here two years ago."
"Indeed !-and she has returned, I presume, immensely rich. Her husband was, you know, a millionnaire."
"Yes ! he died but a short week after they landed at Havre, leaving her all his immense wealth. He will be a fortunate man who wins the widow ; and she already has crowds of suitors. If I remember aright, Harry, you once had a sort of flirtation with her, and I was one among those who thought you, rather than the rich Powell, the favored one. Why, in the deuce, didn't you persevere ?"
"I was too poor," said Alford, with a shrug of the shoulders, " and she was no richer. It would have been madness to marry."
" Then why did you pay her such attention ? " asked Ewing in some surprise, "for many months you were constantly by her side. I always thought that some little difference- a lover's quarrel you know- had separated you, and that each was too proud to make any advances subsequently ." " Let us step into my room, and I will tell you. Egad, it's a wonder you haven't seen the truth long ago. I thought you knew more of the world." The two companions were soon seated in Alford's room when he began : 66 Emily Maxwell was, you know, a splendid girl. But she was poor. I saw and admired her. Yet my circumstances would not permit me to marry. Now young fellows like myself, who have access to good society and are yet without the means to support a wife, must either fly the company of the dear creatures altogether, or else indulge in what I call innocent flirtation- " "Innocent !" "Yes ! innocent-why, my dear fellow, you start as if a bomb had rolled under your chair, you needn't be so alarmed at my words. All I mean to say is thisthat, because one can't marry one isn't therefore to be deprived of love, I don't mean exactly your serious love, but a sort of half real half jesting feeling, such as one experiences toward a girl he is flirting with. You talk with her, walk with her, read with her, sing with her, and in short pay her pretty devoted attention for a while, but when you"find you are in danger of getting seriously in love, then you back out, and seek some new beauty VOL. I.- -19
145
to flirt with. One may thus have all the little excitements of a courtship-the pique, the soothing, the flattered vanity, the one particular angel to whom you chat in a half whisper-without the danger of involving your honor by an engagement-" "But surely there is danger in this, if not to yourself, at least to the lady." "Oh ! no-you are a novice, I see, in these matters. The lady has the sense to see that you are only flirting, since you never seriously make love to her- that is you do not tell her you love her, for when a man does that, I hold he is as much bound to go forward and marry her as he is to pay a debt of honor. If I promised to marry a girl I would consider it binding, and keep the promise religiously. I have no charity for a scoundrel who breaks an engagement. But these innocent flirtations are different things. Why-what would the world be worth if one couldn't take moonlight walks with the girls, or have some one whom you visited, you know, especially. If you think the matter's getting serious for her, of course you'll back out. Meantime, however, a man's a fool if he don't have some one with whom he is flirting-its better than lemonade, however spicy-it gives one a sort of poetry of feeling, only surpassed by love itself:-and that you know is a luxury in which a poor dog, like most young professional men, cannot indulge." "And you mean to say that you carried on some such flirtation with Emily Maxwell." Alford nodded and smiled. " But have you not often thought that in her case it was carried a little too far ? Have you no misgivings of this ?" His companion adjusted his cravat coolly before the glass, as he replied, "It may be I did. I confess I have had once or twice uneasy thoughts about it ; and I certainly did think more of Emily than of any other girl I ever met, and on that account may have carried the matter a little too far in her case. But, if so, I've repented it. To be frank, I have never seen a woman since whom I admired as I did her." His companion made no reply, but looked abstractedly and somewhat mournfully into the grate. A silence of some minutes ensued. At length Alford suddenly looked up. " Do you believe in first love, Ewing ?" he said, "that is, do you think it outlives every subsequent affection ?" "I do." The conversation again stopped, and both companions fell into another fit of musing. At length Ewing rose and departed. As he left the Astor House he soliloquized with himself. "I wish that when we were on the subject, I had spoken out to Harry. He is a generous fellow in
