Flirting: Rage for Admiration

This passage from Pride and Prejudice is an apt summary of flirtatious behavior. Jane Austen truly was an astute observer of the sinful heart.

"Excuse me -- for I must speak plainly. If you,[her] dear father, will not take the trouble of checking her exuberant spirits and of teaching her that her present pursuits are not to be the business of her life, she will soon be beyond the reach of amendment. Her character will be fixed, and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous. A flirt too, in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite."
-- From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen