THE GIRL WHO BORROWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 54, 27 November 1907, Page 3

THE GIRL WHO BORROWS.

Tho borrowing girl is a public nuisance. But the worst of it is that sho is so sweet about asking the loan of anything, from a pocket-handkerchief to the last number of a magazine, it is extremely difficult, to refuse her, for she manages to mako tho one who lends her anything tool that to do so is to receive a favour instead of granting it. To give her her due, sho does not usually borrow things that are really valuable in themselves, but she simply forgets to have at hand all tho little items that every woman needs, and so drops into the habit of borrowing these from her friends. Books, magazines, hatpins, handkerchiefs and such things aro.,the trifles she is constantly borrowing and always forget-ting-to return. A good many of us are apt to become thoughtless about these trifles, because it is very easy to get into the habit of borrowing small things; and it is not that our friends mind'lending them to us, or that they resent our borrowing them because of their intrinsic valne, but it is just the annoyance of never being able to have them at hand because they have foolishly lent them. The other day (says a writer in an American magazine) I was much amused and maybe a little bit shocked by a letter written by a certain, friend of mine who is a great lover of books, and whose library had been shorn of its choicest treasures by tho —well, carelessness, wo will call it, though a stronger expresion could truthfully be .used—of his friends who had forgotten to,, return tho volumes they borrowed. "lam gradually re-stockingmy library," he wrote, "by 'taking a leaf from the borrower's book, and forgetting to return tho volumes I borrow myself." Thisis a method of one's wrongs that is not, of course, to be recommended, though the temptation to adopt it is often very great. I have, however, known, the same idea to bo worked out finite laudably by the victims of another class of borrowers—those people who never happen to have change when small sums are required. Two girls I know-used often to take little ".jaunts' together, and when.it came to paying carfares, afternoon tea, and such things, ono girl would always say, "Do you mind,paying, dear? I haven't any change just now." Of course her friend did so readily enough, but after a few of those excursions she discovered that the other never remembered to mako good, these littlo disbursements, 1 and sho 'adopted vory similar tactics to thoso of the exasperated booklover referred to above. She in turn would say when they started out, "Oh, could you please lend mo half-a-crown, dear? I've nothing but a sovereign." Thon sho would pretend to forgot all about it, and if her friend referred to it would say: "Oh, yes, how careless of me to forget, but you owe me two shillings, don't yon? Four car fares you know, an aftornoon toa, etc., etc." Then she, would joyfully return, the balance. And so she managed to euro her friend of her exasperating habit of borrowing and forgetting to pay back.