It is an open secret that girls are fonder of men than they are of one another--which is very lucky for the men.
Girls differ; and the same girl is different at different times. When she is by herself, she is one thing. When she is with other girls she is another thing. When she is with a lot of men, she is a third sort of thing. When she is with a man. . . But this baffled even Agur the son of Jakeh.
As a rule, a man prefers a girl by herself. This is natural. And yet is said that you cannot have too much of a good thing. If this were true, a bevy of girls would be the height of happiness. Yet some men would sooner face the bulls of Bashan.
Some foolish men--probably poets--have sought for and asserted the existence of the ideal girl. This is sheer nonsense: there is no such thing. And if there were, she could not compare with the real girl, the girl of flesh and blood--which (as some one ought to have said) are excellent things in woman.
Other men, equally foolish, have regarded girls as playthings. I wish these men had tried to play with them. They would have found that they were playing with fire and brimstone. Yet the veriest spit-fire can be wondrous sweet.
Sweet? Yes. On the whole a girl is the sweetest thing known or knowable. On the 6 whole of this terrestrial sphere Nature has produced nothing more adorable than the high-spirited high-bred girl.--Of this she is quite aware--to our cost (I speak as a man). The consequence is, her price has gone up, and man has to pay high and pay all sorts of things--ices, sweets, champagne, drives, church-goings, and sometimes spot-cash.
Men are always wishing they knew all about girls. It is a precious good thing that they don't.--Not that this is in any way disparaging to the girls. The fact is
A girl is an infinite puzzle, and it is this puzzle, that, among other things, tickles the men, and rouses their curiosity.
What a man doesn't know about a girl would fill a Saratoga trunk; what her does know about her would go into her work-box.
The littlest girl is a little women. No boy knows this--and precious few grown up men. Thus
Many a grown up man plays with a girl, then finds himself in love with her. As to the girl---
Always the girl knows whether the play is leading: she probably chooses the game.