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Show alenttne, $resbptcr anti Hartpr By Julian ie Kettel-Hankln - (( TTfttY, yes, he was a saint, if you must know" - rr (1 gazed into her eager, questioning eyet, V Nor envied any saint in Paradise) "A priest who lived in Rome long years ago. Ue healed blind girls and lost his head, and so We keep liis feast in inappropriate wise , With kUies, gifts, and amorous jollities, ' ' f- While in the shrine his flickering tapers glow." "Yet not so inappropriate'' quoth the maid, t ' "Since ever as the good saint's chimes are rung, ' Some maiden's eyes are opened to the light Of love's sweet mastery, and some poor wight, Silent erstwhile, as one that's sore afraid. Loses his head and thereby finds his tongue." OOD morning," said the floor-J floor-J walker, leaning over the coun- f ter in order to be better able J to talk to the girl behind it. mH. "How do you feel on this lov-" lov-" n ers' day, eh?" y She looked up with a start, 'n and hastily hid her hands be-hind be-hind her. "My, how you startled star-tled me! Why, I feel all right" "What's that you've got behind you?" the floorwalker interrupted. "That? Oh, that's nothing. Just an exchange slip to be signed," she replied re-plied glibly, bringing her right hand forward as proof of her assertion. "Let me see the other hand," suggested sug-gested the floorwalker. "Won't one hand do?" she parried. "Let's See the Other Hand." "No, must see them both," he said firmly. "Well, there, then," and she thrust forward an empty hand. "You dropped something behind you," cried the floorwalker, triumphantly. triumph-antly. "You have too many eyes," she pouted, stooping to pick up what she had dropped. It proved to be a valentine, and the floorwalker snickered. snick-ered. "Jove! I thought that by the time a girl got to be twenty plus she was over that kind of foolishness." "A girl Is never too old to enjoy being made love to," she retorted, "and in fact, the older she gets the more she likes it." "Regardless of who does the love-making, love-making, 1 suppose?" "Oh, no, she has her preferences, of course, and after awhile, perhaps, she gets to have a preference " She paused and glanced at the floorwalker, but he was absorbed in the valentine. And she always enjoys a well-put compliment " "Always? Now, I have known girls to snap you off, and tell you not to be silly, and to declare that they hated 'soft fellows.' " "That's because you didn't pay your compliment at the right time, at the psychological moment, so to speak," she replied. "You probably toll them how pretty they looked when they were rigged out in their oldest clothes, preparatory to doing some houseclean-Ing. houseclean-Ing. Now, you should never try to jolly a girl unless she can really flatter flat-ter herself that there may be some truth In what you say. after all. Never miss an opportunity like the first wearing of a new dress t tell her what a charmer she Is. and don't let the occasion slip by on which she wears that favorite pink waist of hers. In other words, catch tier in the mood." "I thought you just said that a girl always liked to be made love to," the floorwalker objected. She withered him with a glance. "Hut she has other things to think of. once In awhile, silly, except being made love to. Once a year, you know, In Lent, she gets very religious, and centers her mind on things not of the world. As you value her affection, affec-tion, don't attempt to make love to her l.i the penitential season. Hut you may start In again bright and arly Easter morning- Also, don't make love to her just after she has decided upon her 'career.' She'!' get over that In tl.ne, but you must let the n.ulady run Its courHe." "I HiippoKK these times you have been telling re about are Just exceptions excep-tions to the rule?" "The cxcr-,triB wt,ich prove the rule, you m.-un," she corrected. "A rl enjoys I,(-,,K ,.,. ovc t0, but ber moods a,c never to be depended mo " "Except on St. Valentine's day," he put in. "Except on St. Valentine's day," she echoed, gazing sentimentally at the valentine. "Such a beautiful senti ment " 'All day long, sweet Valentine, I sirifr to tell this love of mine; Accept this heart, a token, dear, Of love that lives from year to year.' ' "Rubbish!" pronounced the flooz. walker. "And you mean to tell me that that is the kind of stuff girls like?" "Why not?" she asked, with a touch of defiance. "It's not so much the way in which it is expressed, as it is in the thought which lies behind it." "Thought, fiddlesticks! Probably came from some kind of a vapid mind that never knew any real thoughts. Why, don't you know what this kind of stuff is worth?" "How should I know?" flippantly. "1 don't run a magazine." He paid no attention to this remark, continuing his discourse as if nothing noth-ing had happened. "It's nothing but conventional rubbish, and doesn't mean any more than the things a young fellow is expected to say and does say between the dances. It doesn't mean any more than what a man says under the influence of music and moonlight, or, lor that matter, mat-ter, any more than what a girl insinuates insinu-ates with her eyes when she knows she is looking particularly well. It's bred in the bone to be foolish and sentimental sen-timental at certain stages of the game, and we just can't help it:" "I think you are perfectly horrible," she murmured, her eyes still on 'the valentine. "Don't people ever mean what they say?" "Of course they do. But you must be careful about believing all you hear. If a man rushes around before be-fore breakfast, and proposes to you while you are dressing for breakfast with the family ahem! you may be pretty sure that he is in earnest. You may also be reasonably certain of his sincerity if he pops the question while trying to hold an umbrella over two in a driving rain with slush ankle deep under foot." "Well, I'm glad he's in earnest sometimes," she said sarcastically. "Yes, but even after he has proposed pro-posed you mustn't expect him to keep to the same state of ardent wooing all the time. Before you are married he will tell you that when you dance you are as light as a feather, but afterward aft-erward he will tell you that you are like a ton of coal. He will swear that your every wish shall be his, and you will find the cold reality to be the necessity of cringing to him. For awhile nothing will be too good for you, and then you will suddenly wake up to the fact that he is the head of the house, and that you are merely a part of the furniture, as it were. I tell you, a girl is foolish if she pays any particular attention to these valentines, val-entines, or to the vows that lovers make before marriage." The girl behind the counter set her lips in an obstinate line. "You are jealous, that's what's the matter with you," she declared. "If you weren't, "How Should I Know?" you wouldn't think of talking like ohat And I still say that the expression doesn't matter; it's the thought behind be-hind it that counts. And even if a man ceases to pay you compliments, that doesn't go to prove that be doesn't still eare for you. Still water wa-ter runs deep, you know." The floorwalker shrugged his shoulders. shoul-ders. "I always said there was no arguing with a woman. A woman convinced against her will you know the rest " Souvenir Post Cards. ii. seems that the Bouvenir post cord should not only rule St Valentine's day, but serve a good purpose in bringing to many households constant reminders of some friend or absent loved one who Is traveling at home or abroad. There Is much education to be obtained from travel, and by metns or the postals he mails home fnim fvery way station, the globe Irot'er can provide the family with an il'us trated account of his journeys', ant1 when he comes boni'? 'lnd in tl' .n pleasant reminder of nntnv ;!',!'' has seen. |