"It's this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie: The weemenfolk have got no kind of reason to them. Either they like the man, and then a' goes fine; or else they just detest him, and ye may spare your breath -- ye can do naething. There's just two sets of them -- them that would sell their coats for ye, and them that never look the road ye're on. That's a' that there is to women; and you seem to be such a gomeril that ye canna tell the tane frae the tither."

Robert Louis Stevenson, David Balfour, Chapter 29


Aye, how much time would men save if they heeded these sage words, spoken by the celebrated character Alan Breck Stewart? Yet how many men foolishly pursue women who have no interest in them, and waste their time, or even ruin themselves in such pursuit? Too many; see Balzac's remarks on "men with a passion."


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