FLORIDA DAYS.


 The memory, perhaps, of a look from be-
 hind jalousies; a fan held sideways across a
 hot cheek; a kiss, maybe, in the fragrant dusk
 beneath a blossoming orange-tree; -fifty years
 of repentance will atone for a kiss beyond a
 doubt, but one cannot be so sure of the fan;
 that is a far deeper evil than anything so nat-
 ural as a kiss! Between that very human and
 simple impulse, and the flutter of a fan, the
 difference is the difference 'between a sin of
 the heart and a sin of the head; the former is
 hardly a sin at all, the latter is deliberate and
 intentional. There is the look across the white
 feathers, the fingers trembling on the ivory
 sticks; there is the politic weighing of the
 observer's heart, the calculating with greatest
 nicety upon his emotions. Steele said that the
 fan wounded more men than Cupid's bow;
 and Steele's opportunities for observation can-
 not be questioned. And there is another ac-
knowledgment of its power which makes one
think of his Spectator," although its source
is a far lower one. "A Spanish lady with her
fan might shame the tactics of a troop of horse,"