OVER THE TEA-CUPS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 177, 25 July 1908, Page 14

OVER THE TEA-CUPS

FASHIONABLE MARRIAGES. The cost of a wedding at such a church as St. George's. Hanover-square, Lontion, is never much short of £50. The church fee.* are: Full choral service, £10 10/: carpets, vergers, etc., £fi C/; clergyman, £10 10/, floral decorations, £21— total. £4S 6/. If high dignitaries of the church officiate, the fees, of course, are much higher. QUEEX WILHELMINA'S TASTE IN DRESS. Queen Wilhelmina has a thoroughly feminine love of pretty clothes, and when in Paris she heartily enjoys going shopping. Her favourite colours are green and white, and experience lms taught Paris dressmakers to show her only green, blue and white, and to turn on all the electric lights that she may see how her contemplated purchases will look in the vening. Her Majesty has very decided opinions as to what does and what does not suit her. and when one day an attendant ventured to suggest that something under contemplation was too old-looking for her, she immediately replied: '"1 believe in adapting fashions to suit my style and not myself to the fashions." Paris shopkeepers find her a good customer, ior she never minds paying the price for anything she wants. Recently she was admiring a. gold puree. Queen Emma, her mother, remarked that it was nabher costly. "Yes," agreed the young Queen, "1 know that 3000 francs is a good deal of mone\', but I like it, and I shall therefore get that amount of pleasure out of it." THE MARRIED WOMEN'S BURDENS. A general impression prevails, especially among young girls who have never tried it, says one in whom the spirit of discontent is rampant, that all the equipment, necessary for filling the matrimonial role is a wedding rii%* and a white satin dress and a wreath of orange blossom. They think that the ability to turn out a neat and acceptable job as a wife comes by nature, as Dogberry thought that a knowledge of reading and writing did. On the contrary, marriage spells hard work, and it is well to be reconciled to the fact from the first. The necessity of combining a -siren and a household drudge is one of the most difficult complications in the profession of being a woman. Almost every woman could he one or the other—she could be a perfect charmer or a good freehamd cook—but when she tries to combine combing her golden locks and making pastry, she bungles the job. She gets hair in the dough and dough in her hair, so to speak. Still another attribute of the good wife is the ability to work financial miracles, and out of a few shillings to take up seven basketfuls of bargain counter remmants. We talk a great deal about our wonderful financiers, but the} , are simply.not in it with the common or garden variety of women who, on an allowance of £3 a week, keeps a good table, dresses well, goes to the theatre, and has a real lace cap for the baby. CULT If A ! f E' LIABILITY. While many other graces have a specific and limited operation, amiability is universal; - when once it is implanted a* a principle in the heart, it never ceases to grow, but is continually yielding the most delectable fruit. Every incident, however minute, and every event however disastrous and mournful, constitute? alike an element in which this grace flourishes in all the luxuriance of eternal health In the sick chamber, the social circle, and the home it furnishes from its own ample resources all that is most soothing, attractive, and captivating; ever prompt without olliciousness. and deliberate without indifference. It invests its most trilling ofliees with an unspeakable value to those on whom they are conferred, and bestows the mosfe costly presents with liberality so pure and genuine as to silence the most captious and captivate the most scrupulous. Of the conduct of others an avniable woman is always charitable. The omission of attention disturbs her not. She is ever ready to suggest a thousand reasons for a supposed injury; and should it be realised, she is satisfied with oneshe knows she does not deserve it. In the absence of evil, she invariably argues good. A BRIEF FOR THE FLIRT. The question of flirtation has been agitating the mind of Dr. Claye Shaw. He says that girl flirts are invariably misunderstood. They are not so much to be blamed «s to be pitied. They cannot make up their minds. They have become "engaged,"' and all has gone well for a time; when suddenly, for no reason apparent to other people, they have broken their engagements, have reinewed them, ami broken them again, and have finally drifted into a state of mental irritation, the result of sleeplessness, worry, and unpaired nutrition. The usual notion is that they "do not know their owin minds," or that they "cannot make up their minds," whereas, as a matter of fact, there is not much "mind" in it. They are in an impulsive state, and all their actions show it. The truth is, he says, that marriage means a good deal more to the woman than it does to the man; and I maintain that many girls do positively shirkwhen it comes to the time—the part they have to play. Hence they vacillate, anil end by a series of inconsistencies which bring upon t/hem the opprobrium of outsiders who have not fully understood the conditions. I do not believe that women invariably lure men into em<nt<rements, and then reject them for The amusement of placing them in awkward and ridiculous circumstances; for it is certain that the mental change which is involved in the term "falling in love" is of so complicated a character that though it may (and often does) proceed to a correct solution, it may, on the other hand, seriously affect the mental life of the individual. Let women be credited -with this—that for a long time they have been coerced and kept in subjection, that they have had to act oa the defensive, and have. therefore, been made suspicious, that it has become n necessity for them to test the genuineness of overtures, and that if they use their arts and attractions as decoys, these means are, after all, the only armour and weapons which they can employ to find out whether the attack is real. Has not ooie of the most astute of their sisters told them that the wedding rin s is but the token of women's folly and men's presumption? In tho true balance between the emotional and the intellectual we find the [>N;>ct conditions b-.-t suit..,) f or happy m;irn.. S .x. 1! i s j.,*; „., (!,;.-, p | a f '"'•"" ' '■'■'■'■ •'■"• grcif.cst lrimber nf social M , ;/ , ; , ''- ■ •'• : -<': for ll.n emoting] \\» a