Charming

“ Now there was at the court a young man who was handsomer and more gifted than any one else in the kingdom. Because of his grace and his ready wit he was called Charming. Every one liked him except a few people who were jealous of him because the King showed him favor and made him his confidant. One day Charming was with some people who were talking about the [152] ambassador’s return and were saying that his visit did not seem to have done much good. ”

“ But just as Time is the supreme test of Love, so it is also the supreme test of Charm. A woman who is as charming at forty-nine as she was, say, at thirty, must necessarily possess something inherent in her nature, not recognizable as “beauty” perchance, which leads men nevertheless—and, what is infinitely more difficult, other women— by a single hair. ”

“ Charming Marchesa, if the book has done this, believe me that I have paid you no false compliment—formed no overflattering estimate of your nature; for the charm of the work is but in its simple appeal to good and generous emotions, and it can charm none in whom those emotions exist not! ”

“ Besides, he got me water from the Fountain of Beauty, so that I can never grow old, but shall be beautiful always.”
Then Charming’s enemies, who envied him his good fortune, said to the King: “You don’t seem to be jealous, but you have good reason to be. The Queen seems to talk and think of no one but Charming, and how much he did to gain her. ”

“ He replied that he could not find it in his heart to speak roughly to so charming a young gentleman.
"I've no patience with such want of spirit!" cried the wife; "you have not the courage to show your teeth: but I'm going out to get change for this note of a hundred crowns; before I come home, I'll seek this 'charming' youth myself, and see whether he has the power to charm me. ”

“ The men are not what she dreamed them to be, there never was such a person as Prince Charming; and the women embrace her—if she is pretty and graceful—with arms bristling with needles of envy and malice ”

“ Suppose we were all sweet-tempered and warm-hearted and truthful, and as neat and pretty as we could be, and bright and intelligent and modest and helpful—do you not think we should be charming even if our eyes were dim and our ears dull, and we walked with a cane? ”

“ Austin looked from one to the other, and Miss Hayes, seeing that Miss Curtis was quite beyond explanation, said, dryly:
"It appears, Mr. Bevans, that charm is like rain and falls upon the just and the unjust. Elise has been charming the new bookkeeper." ”

“ When the tutor took his leave, Madame Véloutine sighed deeply, and pitied the poor man who had fallen a victim to her charms. She did not see the fat purse of gold the prince bestowed on him, upon learning the true state of the case about the enchanting captive!
Prince Charming rode, day and night, till he reached the king's palace. "Give me your daughter for my wife," he said. The king turned pale at hearing that the secret was betrayed. "For pity's sake speak lower, young man," said the anxious father. ”

“ But in his masculine conceit he really believed he could overcome the principles of a lifetime. Each man considers himself the Prince Charming, who holds the key to the enchanted palace of a woman's heart. ”

“ The natural gift they possessed was the power to make all those with whom they came in contact feel charming too, and this, after all, may or may not be the great secret of Charm? Beauty is delightful to gaze upon; but it is, as it were, a self-contained quality—we cannot share in it except as spectators. But the genius of a charming man or woman is that they help to bring out all that is best in other people. [pg 19] Beauty only makes other people feel more beautiful or infinitely plainer and either is a very lonely feeling. But in Charm we seem to share ”

“ This did not, however, matter quite so much as might be supposed, for when one plays all day long with some one who knows everything there is to know, one need not be so very wise oneself. And when the time came for Prince Charming to rule the country, the Queen who sat beside him on the throne was a wise and beautiful maiden in a stiff white frock. ”

“ The words of charms must be muttered (they lose their efficacy if recited aloud) , and the charmer must never communicate them to one of the same sex, for that transfers the power of charming to the other person. Of superstitious rites practised for the cure of whooping-cough, etc., I will speak a little further on. ”

“ Solitude was charming, and charming also was the contemplation of a single graceful figure in the foreground of a noble picture; but a conventional pair of young people engaged in a conventional flirtation was more than he could endure. ”

“ He was, it appeared, handsome, brilliant, chivalrous, charming; the kindest, the best, the most gallant of men, a sort of demigod who had stooped from his exalted place to—wasn't it wonderful?—actually to fall in love with a poor little actress who spoke just two lines in his new play! ”

“ He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her down-cast modesty conceal'd. ”

“ That must be exceedingly pleasant for the women who are born charming. But I insist that a sensible woman should value the attainable more than the unattainable. Charm is unattainable by any conscious process. ”

“ Every one loved him, except some who were envious because he was the King's favorite. One day Charming rashly remarked that if the King had sent him for the Princess, she would have come back with him. His enemies at once went to the King and used the remark to influence him against Charming.
"He thinks himself so handsome that the Princess could not have resisted him, although she refused his King," they told his Majesty.
The boastful words so offended the King that he ordered Charming to be shut up in the tower, where he had only straw [page 342] to lie on and bread and water to eat. ”

“ You see, you can't take away one ideal without substituting another, and I substituted the ideal of their being charming, gracious, helpful women of the world. Well, that went very well with all but this one—she knows she's going to be charming, anyhow, and she thinks she might as well have a college education as well. ”

“ The pale, and somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to find had become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous temperament, quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired an overwhelming influence over him. ”

“ We hear she is charming; and, from the good taste and good feeling of his writings, we can readily take it for granted that his choice must be charming, in the best sense of that hackneyed, but still comprehensive word. ”

“ They talk a lot of bunk about cultivation and womanliness, but what they really mean is attractiveness—they want their daughters to be charming and have beaux—of course they do. Well, my scheme is to meet the parents half-way. To come out boldly and say that the object of my school is to teach charm. ”

“ He meant that you should be mother's little comforter, sharing her happiness with her and helping her, as far as possible, in her troubles and worries. Be willing, more than willing, to do what is right, and so by love, generosity, and consideration to fill your place perfectly, and when Prince Charming comes he will be made the happiest man in the world, because all of the family will say, "What will we do without sister?" ”

“ Most of us have met men and women who were both mediocre in appearance and uncultivated in mind, who nevetheless were charming in no slight degree, in that the evidence of charm be admiration and friendship. ”

“ So far as I have been able to ascertain, charming is hereditary, and they say that it descends from father to daughter, and then from daughter to son, and so on—a remarkable kind of descent, on which I should be glad to learn the opinion of anthropologists. ”

“ But what then? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey?
Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!
Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world? ”

“ vicomte de nanjac. And you are younger and more beautiful than ever. How do you manage it?
mrs. cheveley. By making it a rule only to talk to perfectly charming people like yourself. ”

“ But all of her charms, none struck him with so much admiration as her elegant shape and air. The charming image which love engraves in his heart, takes up his thoughts, & fills his soul with irrcsistable passions. ”

“ The next day the Queen sent King Charming splendid presents of jewels and rich stuffs, and among other things an ornament made expressly in honour of the approaching wedding. It was a heart cut out of one huge ruby, and was surrounded by several diamond arrows, and pierced by one. A golden true-lover’s knot above the heart bore the motto, ‘But one can wound me,’ and the whole jewel was hung upon a chain of immense pearls. Never, since the world has been a world, had such a thing been made, and the King was quite amazed when it was presented to him. ”

“ but, where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world, and of being so very early engaged as a partner; ”

“ Among my own friends I number women who are on the stage, good women, honest women, and true women, but not one of them wishes a sister or a daughter of hers to follow in her footsteps.
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION
Although you do need to earn your own living, you think that some day Prince Charming will appear and make you his wife. Suppose he happens to be an actor, suppose you are true to each other, what kind of a life will you have? You will not in reality be a helpmate and companion to the man you love, you will only bear his name. ”

“ Beauty is like a wonderful jewel; but Charm, if I may refer to it in metaphor, resembles an ideal home. And who would not rather pawn their jewellery than break up a happy domesticity? It is perhaps this feeling which Charm gives us of being perfectly “at home” that is its most precious possession. So, may be, it is really the one word we give to that quality of the mind and heart which mingles both sympathy and understanding in equal quantities. ”

“ Real Charm is something much more subtle than any of these things—more subtle, yet more potent. In fact, no one may pride themselves on the possession of Charm until Time has robbed them of all those “minor beauties.” Indeed, if I were asked to explain Charm—and in thus being asked I should be faced by the difficulty of explaining the well-nigh inexplicable—I should sum it up as a kind of super-intelligence of the “soul,” an intelligence which combines the wisdom of the Heart with the wisdom of the World, the Wisdom of the Serpent with some of the guileless optimism of the Dove ”

“ Now I suspect that Charm is closely related to Leisure. Charm is a living harmony in the individual soul. It is organised internally, the expression of mere inborn needs, the offspring of free choice; and as it is the great giver of pleasure to others, sprung probably from pleasure within ourselves; making life seem easier, more flexible, even as life feels in so far easier and more flexible to those who have it. ”

“ Nature has given us with a fine semblance of doing so unconsciously. Perhaps the Dictionary gives the best definition when it explains Charm as being “something possessing occult power or influence.” Occultism seems the easiest explanation of the personal “sway” which some outwardly unattractive person wields over [pg 18] the most unlikely people, people who, by all reason and logic, policy and prudence, ought not to be thus fascinated. Love is easier to explain than Charm ”

“ Men talk of the nameless charm that hangs about some fair one, her unspeakably winning manners, and the grace “beyond expression” that pervades her being; but the influence of such a charmer is almost entirely confined to the other sex. ”

“ Every obstacle that can divide two human beings had been raised between them, but the old sea-legend had spoken truly. Since the hour in which the spell had woven itself round their two youthful hearts, the charm had worked continuously, had preserved its hold upon them, spite of estrangement and separation, had drawn them irresistibly together while all around them blazed the hot flame of strife and hatred, had brought them triumphantly through all the array of hostile influences to this the hour of fulfilment. ”

“ Charis, Grace herself, bestows Charm.it, blending perfect though inexplicable beauty of thought with perfect though often suggested beauty of feeling. To these her airy sprites minister with melody and fragrance, with unexpectedness and sweet surprises, freedom in and out of law, naïveté", aristocratic poise, lightness, pathos, rapture,—all gifts that serve to consecrate the magic touch. However skilled the singer, quality and charm are inborn. ”

“ The charmer first is caught in toils of greed and lust.
And sees not ’tis the snake has charmed him, bound him fast.90
The snake addresses him: ‘O charmer! See now! Look!
Thy own work thou perceivest, my wiles hast mistook.
Thou charmest in God’s name to make me thy bond-slave,
And lead me captive, make me sport for fool and knave.
The name of God it is that holds me fast enchained;
That name thou usest as my trap. Art not soft-brained?
That name will one day vengeance on thee for me take. ”

“ The physical charm was gone, but other charm was present—that blending of kindness and power which wins men's hearts, if it does not stir their pulses, gave her a dominating personality, and made the circle of her influence exactly as large as the circle of her acquaintance. ”

“ But the charm that won men, her charm of charms, was her mouth—mobile, slightly pouted, not too narrow, of a wonderful, vividly healthy and vital red. She had beauty, she had intelligence. But it was impossible for a man to think of either, once his glance had been caught by those expressive, inviting lips of hers, so young, so fresh, with their ever-changing, ever-fascinating line expressing in a thousand ways the passion and poetry of the kiss. ”