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.