THE LOVE PURSUIT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 9 August 1930, Page 25

THE LOVE PURSUIT

HUNTRESS WOMAM MARKS HER MAN

1 Frankly, in my opinion, women do not understand failing in love as men understand it,,writes P. E. Bailey in the "Sunday Chronicle." : .

sciously they are prooccupied with, the welfare of their unborn children. Directly she first opens her.eyes the life pf a girl child is in pawn to the, next generation. Only the most irresponsible woman will marry a man who makes her wildly, happy if she feels in her heart that his, character is not to bo relied on. i , •. ■,-■■■.■,.■■

•I write ■ this far from books of reference—to borrow a phrase used by people too lazy to investigate-^-but my memory recalls no welMcnown, example of> a woman so much- in loyo with a man. that she pined away- and died. There was, of course, the Maid of Allan Water,; who, drowned herself,- but she did. so on account of the scandal; that arose over her affair with the soldier.

She may flirt with tho charming ne'er-do-well, but she • marries him very rarely. • . ■ | One of the girls in ;Npel, Coward's operette, "Bitter Sweet," putsiwoman.'s attitude to love and life, very succintly. She expresses her desire to marry, and another girl suggests: "Of course, you'll bo very much in love.'", . "1- hope, not,": says the first girl, and when the second protests-the first explains: "Men are so much'easier to manage when you're not in love." This young lady speaks for the whole of womanhood in regard to love.-Love, for women is an industry, ;and for men romance, a glorious adventure, something remote from every day. A man becomes as drunk with love .as withalcohol, and a woman becomes no mOro drunk with love, when she intends it to end in marriage, than with tea. Love to men who.mean to marry ia champagne, and loyo to women who mean to marry is tea, , ; . ■

Whoever heard of a woman who betook herself to the vast. Dark-Continent of Africa and lived evermore remote from her kind because a man failed to return her affection? I never did myself, but I have met* men' there whose lives have been wrecked- by tho scorn in a pair of blue eyes.

■ Women' are selfish in love. At the back of their minds are always these questions: "What am I getting out of this love affair? Am I getting anything out of it? If not, what on earth am I going on with it for?" A man only tolls himself: "I want this girl. I don't care what tho consequences are to me. I love her more than anything in tho world, and I'm going to marry, her." Heaven knows I am not drawing invidious comparisons, or blaming women for their attitude towards lovo. They merely fulfil the role which Nature planned for them. Nature carea nothing for the happiness of men or women, her sole preoccupation is the continuance of tho race. To ensure this Nature has constituted woman a stimulus and an irritant to man in order that ho may be goaded to the point when ho will overcome all obstacles in order to possess her. For Nature's purpose to bo achieved tho more calm the woman's judgment and the more disordered the man's tho better. ■

The fact that after ■ 'marriage^ the effect of the champagne, evaporates in the case of men and the effect of the tea doesn't • evaporate .in the : case of women is not really relevant. You cannot fall from heights you have never reached.

For countless generations women, have industrialised love, and they will go on doing so until the day dawns, os it is about to do, when every woman will continue to earn her own living after marriage in the same occupation that she followed before marriage.

' If woman's judgment remains calm i she can observe her victim with scientific detachment, and should one.lure Ifail to attract him substitute another. If man's judgment remained calm he would perceive tho trap into which lie was walking and retreat in time. Therefore, Nature has arranged tha^ he shall bo too much in love to exercise any judgment, and that woman shall only be in love sufficiently for her intelligence to be stimulated, and not swamped. Nature does not cara a. button whether women aro happy in love or not, because women are static. Sho does care if men are happy in. love beeauso men are dynamic, and if happiness is absent they cease to fulfil Nature's purpose.

When all women continue to support themselves after marriage they will be able to afford themselves the luxury of falling in love. They will cease to marry for homes, and look on their lovelife with their husbands much as men; look on their love^lifo with their wives —until the tea versus champagne attitude of these ladies dulls tho fine gold of love.

But since women, unless policy dictates otherwise, tend to be tyrannous and overbearing in love when they take it seriously, and lack all sense of humour concerning themselves, their love affairs in their affluent future will tend to become stormy. Divorces will fall thick and fast. . ■ . ;

Still, as anything is better than stag-i nation, I look forward to the days when for women to fall in love will provo commercially possible.

Another reason why women do not fall in love like men is that subcon-