to a girl," which, though somewhat conversational, has evidently the same historic origin as our word Court-ship; implying that formerly it was the custom at court alone to prolong the agony of Love by gallant attentions to women, which enabled them to exercise the “cunning to be strange.” _Disadvantages of Coyness._—Beneficial as are no doubt the effects which have been brought about by female Coyness in developing the art of Courtship, there are corresponding evils inherent in that mental attitude which make it probable that Coyness will gradually disappear and be succeeded by something more modern, more natural, more refined. There are four serious objections to Coyness, one from a masculine, three from a feminine point of view. Men, in the first place, can hardly approve of Coyness; for it certainly indicates a coarse mediæval fibre in a man if he is obliged to confess that he can love a girl not for her beauty and amiability, but only because she tantalises and maltreats him: “Spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love, The more it grows and fawneth on her still.” Or, in Heine’s delightful persiflage of this attitude— “Ueberall wo du auch wandelst, Schaust du mich zu allen Stunden, Und jemehr du mich misshandelst, Treuer bleib ich dir verbunden. “Denn mich fesselt holde Bosheit Wie mich Güte stets vertrieben; Willst du sicher meiner los sein Musst du dich in mich verlieben.” In one English sentence: Your amiability repels, your malice attracts me; if you wish to get rid of my attentions, you must fall in love with me. If a refined man can feel ardent affection for an animal, a friend, a relative, without being “spurned” and consequently “fawning,” why should not the same be true of his love for a beautiful girl? It is true; and hence the cleverest women of the period, feeling this change in the masculine heart, have adopted a different method of fascinating men and bringing them to their feet, as we shall presently see. Women, in turn, are injured by Coyness; first, because it makes them act foolishly. French and German girls are systematically taught to take immediate alarm at sight of a horrid man (whom they secretly consider a darling creature, with _such_ a moustache) and conceal themselves behind their mamma or chaperon, like spring chickens creeping under the old hen at sight of a hawk. This sort of _spring-chicken coyness_ does infinitely more harm than good; it makes the girls weak and frivolous, and as for the men, if they are systematically treated as birds of prey, how can they avoid falling in with their _rôle_? If men are to behave like gentlemen they must be treated as gentlemen, as they are in England and America.