Above all things, the man in office must avoid a scandal, what the English call in slang, a row. So he must be discreet, conciliating, and an accomplished diplomatist: such, I repeat, are the qualifications of any man occupying a high and responsible position in England. Take the man of business, the City man. Everywhere you find the same activity, the same feverish, high pressure kind of life. Under these circumstances, the part that the English woman has to play is clear enough: to make her husband forget, in private life, the strain, the rebuffs, the deceptions, the snubs and kicks that he has to endure in public life; to prepare for him a retreat in the calm atmosphere of which he may refresh himself and acquire new strength; to do the honours of her house with that liberality, that generous hospitality, which are only met with among the English; in short, to be satisfied with a part which, when filled with that abnegation and devotion of which the women of all countries are capable, is no less beautiful for being a secondary one. Now, dear reader, if you will once more do me the honour of accepting me as guide, we will visit together those beautiful girls a trifle too emancipated, those virtuous wives a little too much respected, those good mothers perhaps a little neglected; those women hospitable above all others, whose ingenious forethought for the smallest needs of life makes of a humble cottage a little palace of cleanliness, order, and comfort. JOHN BULL'S WOMANKIND. I. Flirtation--Sweethearting--Love in the open air--_Où il y a de la gêne il n'y a pas de plaisir_. Seeing that the word _flirtation_ seems to have been definitely received into the French vocabulary, it is natural to suppose that our language contained no equivalent for it, or that the thing itself never existed in France. Flirtation is, in fact, an essentially English pastime. No one flirts in France: we are more serious than that in love affairs. Some etymologists have thought that the verb _to flirt_ was formed from _fleurette_ in the expression _conter fleurette_; but the best authorities agree in thinking that it took its origin from _fleardian_, an Anglo-Saxon word which means _to trifle_; and thus it seems possible that it may have some connection with the verb _fleureter_, which, in old French, signified "to say little nothings," whence _plaisanter_, _badiner_. However this may be, let us leave to _savants_ the task of deciding the matter, while we concern ourselves about the thing itself. What, then, is flirtation? Flirtation is a very innocent little pastime. I have read in the confession albums of young ladies of good society, "What is your favourite occupation? Flirting." The answer is not in exquisite taste, even from the English point of view, I admit; but no one would think of taking it amiss ... all the more so, I should add, because these confessions are not meant to be taken very seriously.