LOVERS' RESOURCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)

LOVERS' RESOURCE.

" UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH." A SHORT WAT WITH HARD PARENTS.

(By J.C.)

Family opposition to the love affairs of fond and probably foolish young i people reacts upon the principals concerned in diverse ways. Filial regard and a sense of duty sometimes produce a result gratifying to the elders, who rejoice that the impetuous and oversentimental young things have been persuaded to break it off. The ultimate result sometimes is that an obedient, too docile daughter, coaxed into acquiescence, remains a thwarted spinster all her life. Sometimes even the grandparents take a hand in the cruel Among the .Maoris family control is often carried to excess. Many a jrirl lias been sacrificed to tribal considerations. There was that double suicide in the Wliakatane district recently. The girl, forbidden by her 1 grand pa rente to marry the lad of her ! choice, took poison; and her distraught ! lover ended his life in the eatne way a few days later. It was the lamentable ! tragedy of Vilikins and his Dinah all i over again in a Maori setting. | "... He swallowed the cold poison like I a lovior so brave, I And Vilikins and his Dinah were both laid 1 in one grave. ,j fortunately all young Dinahs do not j take their stern parents or their imperious grannies so seriously. Consider this i real-life drama which came within my I knowledge in a North Island country | town. It concerned the troubled love affair of Doreen May (let us call her,' for Doreens were many at that day, 1 before "The Sentimental Bloke" had debunked the name) and her voun«r man. Bill. Doreen and Bill, hopelesslv j in love with each other, were the despair of both pairs of parents, who agreed on j one point, the complete unsuitabilitv of the lovers for each other. Bill was a rather fine young fellow, a country-bred stalwart of 23. better fitted to swing an axe. T thought, than to acquire a premature stoop bending over the ledgers in , the local bank in which he was a junior. I Doreen May was a healthy out of-doors i girl, as pretty a bunch of charms as any j fond lover could desire, and with it all a j considerable endowment of sound sense I and probably more foresight than Bill : possessed, though she was the younger i by four years. The big snag in the cur- 1 rent of their affections was the young' man's lack of money. j The bank did not value his services I at more than three pounds a week, and] there was a regulation that no eniplove j could incur the liabilities of marriage ! unless his salary was at least £200 a ! year. The second snag was that the! branch bank manager was the father of' Doreen, and he steadily declined to' recommend an increase. Mr. and Mrs. i Manager both had higher plans for their darling child. No three-pound-a-week clerk for her. Mrs. Manager specially ; cherished lofty social ideas, which re-] volved. as it were, round daughter. j Holidays were at hand, and there | was an invitation from Doreens aunt ' to spend a fortnight with her in the city. The mother sighed with relief, i and saw Doreen off by the train. Mean I while Bill had gone off on a holiday trip j of his own. His favourite oruisinsr- j ground was the forest reserve and the : ranges at the back of the town. With ! gun and slasher and swag he would i tramp off for a solitary bush week-end] , and try to forget stuffy bank books. 1 This time, apparently, he intended to ' be away longer than usual, for he bor- | rowed a pack horse to carry his camp' gear in as far as the track went, and having returned the horse to its home paddock after dark went off again into the quiet places. j Everyone to his taste, of course, said his mates; as for them, give them lively company and a run to the city. Doreen greeted her mother so . sweetly when she returned from the 1 city that Mrs. Manager hoped for the best; it was all to the good, that! , change of scene and faces. | Question time. Auntie Edith? "Oh. 1 i she was all right," said Doreen. "I gave i the old dear a couple of days around the shops, then I slipped off and took [ the train back and met Bill and we've ; had a most lovely time. Bill's a perfect ■ dear. Mumsv; he did most of the cooki ing, and he had the camp fixed up beaui tifiillv." "Doreen May! Whatever are yon talking about? You slipped off 10 meet Bill* What camp? Oh, wherever were • you ?" ' Doreen was perfectly calm and happy j about it. .She beamed at her angry and puzzled mother. "Oh, mum, you can't imagine how delightful it was in that 1 whare in the bush. Bill found it deserted last year and we've always had ' it in mind for week-ends when we got t married. Of course, we can't until you • and daddy give us your consent, because 5 I'm not 21 yet; but really we did the 1 next best thing. It's wonderful to wake ' up and hear the tui and the bellbird 1 singing to us as if their little throats s would burst. Bill said it was like a sacrament, and— • , "You awful girl! You went off with 1 that villain! Oh, Doreen. don't you ' realise what a terrible thing you've 1 done? You're ruined. My heart's '' broken!" "Of course, mum. I'm ruined, and so's Bill," said Doreen with the utmost cheerfulness. "It's all a terrible dis--1 grace and I don't know how any of us B will ever hold up our heads again." s "Oh. to think you're a daughter of mine!" sobbed the mother. "And your poor father —and his position and all!" f "Yes, mum, isn't it perfectly awful." said*Doreen sweetly. "And to think it's g all because you and dad and the silly old bank are so obstinate. Some parents j don't know how to treat their children, j. do they ?" "It will be all over the town. How .. can we face our friends again?" t "And. Mummy, don't you go and s blame Bill. That camp honeymoon was all my idea. I planned it and Bill just B acted under my instructions, as he always will. Now. it's quite simple f really. You break the news to dad, and tell him the rest is up to him. I want a choral wedding and six bridesmaids. 1 so you and dad. after you fix up that rise of screw for Bill, can make a real splash of it." r Ajid it was even so. No need to tell of all the furious comings and goings and - paternal brainstorms. Dad managed it; p serenely smiling Doreen knew that he - could once he accepted the romantic n situation. Bill's services quickly became !. so valuable that he was jumped up by - another hundred a year. And it even s came to pass that presently, after Mrs. Bill was happily settled in her own f home, she persuaded- mum and dad to ] try a week-end themselves in that bush camp among the bellbirds. "You'll love it, you dears," she said, "it will renew your youth, see if it doesp't."