Amongst women, modesty is of infinitely more potent influence than is ability. Yet
To a woman's modesty ability is a wonderfully enhancing setting. And
Modesty is the most complex and the most varied of emotions. Perhaps
When modesty and frailty go hand in hand, there is no more delectable combination known to men; and Aphrodite has not the subtle charm of a Cynthia. Perhaps this is why such
A wondrous halo of romance hangs about the name of a Heloise, of a Marguerite, of a Marianna Alcoforado; of a Concetta of Afragola; of a Catalina; of Robert le Diable's Helena, of Isolde; of Lucia of Bologna, the enchantress of Ottaviano; of Francesca; of Guenevere; of the sweet seventeen-year old novice of Andouillets, Margarita, the fille who was "rosy as the morn"; of the Beguine who nursed Captain Shandy; of the fille de chamber who walked along the Quai de Conti with Yorick; of Ameilia Viviani, the inspirer of Shelly's most ecstatic lyric; of Dryden's masque-loving Lucretia. For, after all,
Is the star any the less starry to the rapt star-gazer when he finds it to be a tremulous planet?
Cynthia may have blushed in heaven; bit did the blush make her any less lovely to the Latmian?
Only in the clear and unclouded pool is the star undimmed embosomed.
* * *
They say a woman is capricious. But the consistency of woman's capriciousness is only exceeded by the capriciousness of man's consistency.