When the man finally appears, and the little brother marches off like a well-trained soldier, with two nickels jingling in his pocket, even the victim might be on his guard.  When the family are unceremoniously put out of the house, and father, mother, and sisters are seen in the summer twilight, wandering in disconsolate pairs, let the neighbours keep away from the house under penalty of the girl’s lasting hate.

Sometimes, when the family have been put out, and the common human interest leads intimate spinster friends to pass the house, there is nothing to be seen but the girl playing accompaniments for the man while he sings.

Yet the initiated know, for if a girl only praises a man’s singing enough, he will most surely propose to her before many moons have passed.  The scheme has a two-fold purpose, because all may see that he finds the house attractive, and if no engagement is announced, the entire affair may easily be explained upon musical and platonic grounds.

[Sidenote:  A Formal Proposal]

Owing to the distorted methods of courtship which prevail at the present day, a girl may never be sure that a man really cares for her until he makes a formal proposal.  If a man were accepted the minute he proposed, he would think the girl had been his for some time, and would unconsciously class her as among those easily won.

The insinuation that she has been easily won is the thing which is not to be borne.  It may have been simple enough, in fact, but let a man beware how he trifles with this delicate subject, even after fifty years of marriage.

[Sidenote:  On Probation]

Consequently, it is the proper thing to take the matter under advisement and never to accept definitely without a period of probation.  This is the happiest time of a girl’s life.  She is absolutely sure of her lover and may administer hope, fear, doubt, and discouragement to her heart’s content.

The delicate attentions which are showered upon her are the envy of every spinster on the street who does not know the true state of the affair.  Sometimes, with indifferent generosity, she divides her roses and invites the less fortunate to share her chocolates.  This always pleases the man, if he knows about it.

Also, because she is not in the least bound, she makes the best of this last freedom and accepts the same courtesies from other men.  Nothing is so well calculated to sound the depths of original sin in man’s nature, as to find his rival’s roses side by side with his, when a girl has him on probation.  And he never feels so entirely similar to an utter idiot, as when he sees a girl to whom he has definitely committed himself, flirting cheerfully with two or three other men.

Woe be to him if he remonstrates!  For Mademoiselle is testing him with this end in view.  If he complains bitterly of her outrageous behaviour, she dismisses him with sorrowful dignity, jealousy being the one thing she cannot tolerate in men.