KNOWING WHEN THEY ARE PRETTY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1266, 4 June 1886, Page 3

KNOWING WHEN THEY ARE PRETTY.

There are men of experience who will confidently assert that a woman is lovely of face though they catch hut a glimpse of the figure f om behind, and (hey will be right nine times out of ten. Such are guided not by the ove alone, but by symmetry of shape and grace of movement. Ugly women have these qualifications, though as a i ule it would i c found that their ugh* ness belongs to that class which logicians would call “accidental.” Wilkie Collins fells how one of his heroes con ceived the most glowing fancy for some young girl’s face upon observation of her hack ; she turned, and proved to be a mulatto. This is what we should call an “accident” the beauty nature designed was marred by the luckless choice that her akin and features appealed only to negro taste. I Sbo it is with women under a variety | of circumstances, infinite as the risks and combinations of human life, The experienced person is not deceived by inconsistencies of this kind. He brings knowledge of the world and mankind to bear. A woman who is beautiful | cannot lie ignorant of the tact—unless I she be Stupid ; we read of such tilings 1 with pleasure, as we read of other ' agreeable prodigies in romance. But

when a girLchild perceives that she is welcome every whore, ch it oM people smile at her approach, add young- men pay her more attention than her c miracles get, she must be duller than nra the majority of her sex if the suspicion that she is good looking I e-t not strike her. In a few months suspicion becomes delicious certain tv. Whispers are overheard, glances c m Hit, the mirror anxiously consuke ! gives pleas-" ing assurance. Even if there ho no servant, nor complacent mother, nor good nat ired friend of the family to set her doubt at rest, the warmth and the frankness of her bov lovers is proof enough. We do net believe that there ever was a girl H- ing in the realms of the habitable gio'-e who d d not know her prettiness, if pret-y .she was, before reaching the age of -n-e >-

teen ; but it is sadly true th it m tnv girls who are not pretty fall in o error on the point.—‘ Standard.’