VI.  “The more I see of that girl, the more I think of her.  Those Frenchy touches of dress and that superb red hair make her beautiful.  I always did like red hair.  Honestly, I think she’s the prettiest girl I ever saw.  And her womanliness matches her beauty.  Any man might be proud of winning a girl like that.

VII.  “The irony of Fate!  The one soul in all the universe that is deep enough to comprehend mine, the peerless queen of womankind, she for whom I have waited all my life, is pledged to another!  I shall go mad if I bear this any longer.  I simply must have her.  ’All is fair in love and war’—­I’ll go and ask her!”

[Sidenote:  Gold-Brick Tactics]

When one man alludes to another as a “confidence man,” it is no distinguishing mark, for they instinctively adopt gold-brick tactics when seeking woman in marriage.

Those exquisite hands shall never perform a single menial task!  Yet, after marriage, Her Ladyship finds that she is expected to be a cook, nurse, housekeeper, seamstress, chambermaid, waitress, and practical plumber.  This is an unconscious tribute to the versatility of woman, since a man thinks he does well if he is a specialist in any one line.

Her slightest wish shall be his law!  Yet not only are wishes of no avail, but even pleading and prayer fall upon deaf ears.  It will be his delight to see that she wants for nothing, yet she is reduced to the necessity of asking for money—­even for carfare—­and a man will do for his bicycle what his wife would ask in vain.

Many of the matrimonial infelicities of which both men and women bitterly complain may be traced to the gold-brick delusion.  A woman marries in the hope of having a lover and discovers, too late, that she merely has a boarder who is most difficult to please.

[Sidenote:  A Certain Pitiful Change]

There is a certain pitiful change which comes with marriage.  The sound of her voice would thrill him to his finger-tips, the touch of her hand make his throat ache, and the light in her eyes set the blood to singing in his veins.  With possession, ecstasy changes to content, and the loving woman, dreaming that she may again find what she has so strangely lost, tries to waken the old feeling by pathetic little ways which women read at once, but men never know anything about.

In a way, woman is to blame, but not so much.  Her superior insight should give her a better understanding of courtship.  A man may mean what he says—­at the time he says it—­but men and seasons change.

[Sidenote:  Value and Proportion]

The happiness of the after-years depends largely upon her sense of value and proportion.  No woman of artistic judgment would crowd her rooms with bric-a-brac, even though comfort were not lacking.  Pictures hung together so closely that the frames touch lose beauty.  Space has distinct value, and solid colours, judiciously used, create a harmony impossible to obtain by the continuous use of figured fabrics.