REALLY ROMANTIC MARRIAGES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3383, 18 July 1927, Page 8

REALLY ROMANTIC MARRIAGES.

Ever since the first James Stuart nade England too uncomfortable for he Pilgrim Fathers, or to go back ven further, ever since Sir Walter faicigb made his cloak a bridge across i puddle for Queen Elizabeth, elegance has steadily faded out of every-day existence. ' The sweeping hows, the lifting fans, the airs and graces ol leiicate, lingering courtship hung on a nig time, but they are almost gone iow.

Elegance made its last stand in the ■elutions between lovers and maidens iml husbands and wives. It is only .wo or three generations since a Ims,aiul never met nor left bis wife withal t a bow and a formal, gallant speech, hat sort of conjugal conduct is only •cry rarely to ho encountered to-day, which is in one way—of course—a very great pity, because there can be no galant ry without elegance, and although leither is absolutely necessary to rouaiice. it thrives heller with than without them.

The modern husband is not a courtiei ,o Ids wile, nor bis wife a queen to dm. They are just partners—perhaps •-cat pals. Every woman gets a thrill mt of being her luisbund’s pal, but not i romantic thrill. Tin# diet is that the eliin.'iiß’iit of conduct winch once made learlv every marriage a romance—

lOmetimes hollow, .sometime.' sordid.---ias been overshadowed by liberty. Jiice—though slit l might be wooed and aarriud like a queen—a wife belonged 0 her husband, body and soul, because ic paid for her four meals a day. Now 1 man can I; tempt a woman with mead and butter, .if she does not love dm for his own sake, she can earn icr own bread and butter—perhaps a tile jam, too.

ft may seem paradoxical, but 1 heieve the decline of romance through lieu and '.rumen's now-found canuir[eric will eventually make for even nore romantic marriages than are at’■iimted to the ancient ultra-elegant

the period we arc passing; through is uly traaisit'oual. Partnership umr-■jage-s are so new that the only thing ■■.i! notice about them is the partner;!iip. But underneath that is the treueiuiutis romance of two people hat ing naaried for no other reason except love. ,Vhen the economic independence of vonicn is complete, a.- it will lie within Ids century, every marriage will he in-re bountiful and more romantic than t has over been before in the history T the world: because neither husband lor wife will 'gain anything from it xccpt a share of each other’s lovable.

nudities. And I do not think there is any ro mice mute worth having than that.

The ■'Hoyciic” has been increasingly irevalent at .southern resorts in E,ligand this season, where a year ago me saw only occasional specimens of ills very latest type of the young miancipaied female. 'Jim “IJoyelTe” lot only crops Tier hair close like a. my, Inii she dresses m every wav as

a hoy. Sometimes she wears a sports jacket ami flannel "hags”: more generally she iavors a kind ol Norfolk suit. Nearly always she goes hatless. Now that I lie whoh world knows that the Prince of Wales, in [lie Madrid express during his recent visit to Spain, had for breakfast least and coffee and a banana spread with marmalade, the illusion that no Englishman begins the day without a vast meal of porridge ami bacon and eggs mav be weakened.