heir form
of flirting takes the shape of votive offerings, district visiting,
and choir singing, their perpetual gush of sentiment and hero-worship
is advantageous, on the principle that it is an ill wind that blows
nobody good.

All of these female varieties have their counterparts among male
flirts, and besides, there are some masculine types flagrantly and
universally common. Such is the bold, handsome bird of prey, who
advances just far enough to raise expectation and then suddenly
retires. Or the men who are always _insinuating_, but who never make
an honest declaration; who raise vague hopes with admirable skill and
poetic backgrounds, and keep women madly and hopefully in love with
them by looks and gestures they never give an interpretation to. When
they are tired they retire slowly, without quarrel, without
explanation; they simply allow their implied promises to die of
neglect.

Then there is the prudent flirt, who trifles only with married women;
dangles after those subtle, handsome creatures who affect blighted
lives and uncomfortable husbands, and who, having married for
convenience, are flirting for love. Such women are safe entertainment
for the cowardly male flirt, who fears a flirtation that leads
perchance to matrimony, but who has no fears about his liability to
commit bigamy. There are "fatherly" male flirts, and "brotherly" and
"friendly" flirts, but the title is nothing but an agreed-upon centre
of operations.

Yet it is difficult to imagine how, in a polished state of society,
flirting could be done without. Some sort of preliminary examination
into tastes, disposition, and acquirements is necessary before
matrimony, and a woman cannot carry a list of her desirable qualities,
nor a man advertise his temper and his income. The trouble is that no
definite line can be drawn, no scale of moral values can decide where
flirting ends and serious attentions begin; and society never agrees
as to what is innocent and what reprehensible.

There are ill-natured people who call every bright, merry girl that is
a favorite with gentlemen, that talks, sings, and dances well, a
"terrible flirt;" who admit nothing as propriety but what is
conventionally correct and insipid. The media of flirting are indeed
endless; a clever woman can find in simply _listening_ a method of
conveying the most delicate flattery and covert admiration. Indeed,
flirting in its highest quality is an art requiring the greatest
amoun