UNSATISFACTORY ENGAGEMENTS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4314, 7 September 1921, Page 1

UNSATISFACTORY ENGAGEMENTS

(By

Ward Muir).

“Enid’s is such an unsatisfactory’ engagement,” ,1 heard someone remark the other day; and I am beginning to suspect that ’•unsatisfactory” is a word which fits many similar situations. These engagements are not ones which are to be regretted or cancelled. They are not the prelude to that most vulgar of farce-traged-ies a “breach” case. They are simply/ by the nature of circumstances or temperaments, “unsatisfactory.” For instance, the Enid to whom reference was made is engaged to a man whose business sends him to the Continent. So he and Enid see almost nothing of each other—and, as it happens, neither of them is a good correspondent. Enid’s engagement, therefore, does not mean that she is taken about a great deal and danced attendance on. Rathex’ the reverse. The men who used to take her about have ceased to do so—and Peter" her fiance, is t rarely at home and able to do so. She lives a lonelier life, a quieter life, a life with much less male company, than formerly. And she enjoys masculine society and was. inclined to be a flirt, the only result of her engagement is this: life is duller than it was before.

“But of course, Love” (with a capital L) “is the' compensation,” murmurs the sentimentalist.

•No doubt in due course it will be. But at the moment one may well question whether, for an Enid, a fiance-less engagement (for this is almost what it amounts to) contains quite' enough Love —with a capital L—to counterbalance its sacrifices. Enid is young, and the trite adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder is cold comfort for a girl who ought to be strolling with her wooer in the moonlight or fox-trotting with him at a dance. Every day that passes means that Enid is cheated of a kiss from Peter, of a warm pressure of the hand;' of a score of significant glances exchanged between two pairs of loving eyes.

It is a testing-time for Enid; and this, perhaps, is the one factor of her engagement which is not “unsatisfactory.” Had Peter resided in her neighbourhood, her engagement might have amounted to little more than a prolonged flirtation—an intensified version of the flirtation of which the, engagement itself was, as a fact, the outcome. To be deprived of flirtation is an ordeal for Enid —and her stoical, sporting accept-ance-of it is some measure of the sincerity of her affection for the absent Peter.

Howbeit the “unsatisfactoriness” of Enid’s engagement, with its sudden ending of all flirtation, is a better “unsatisfactoriness” than that of the engagement which is nothing but flirtation.

• “A “giggle-and-glad-eye 'affair,” someone once contemptuously characterised the flirtatious engagement. It is an engagement in which both parties seem determined to pretend to be pretending in order to hide the truth that they really are in love without any pretence. The two axioms of the flirtatious engagement appear to be: “Undignified at. all costs!” and “Plenty of publicity!” Poor, lonely Enid, with her seldom seen' Peter and her starvation ’of billing and cooing, is perhaps losing less than the girl with the other kind of “unsatisfactory” engagement —the engagement which is all effusive Love (with or without a capital L) and no loneliness in which to test Love’s fidelity.

THE COMPLEXION.

Steaming the face, which ma# be done by means of a special vaporiser, or by an ordintary kitchen steamer, is an excellent treatment fox* the thorough cleansing of the skin, especially when the pores are blocked and the skin is of a greasy nature; but it should not be resorted to frequently, or would have the disadvantage of enlarging the pores. * The action of the steam should be helped by friction with the hand — gentle and regular manipulation, designed to restore or promote elasticity and tone in the small organs of The skin. Five or ten minutes’ good steaming and frictioning at regular intervals will materially help to obviate premature wrinkles and to keep the skin in a fresh and healthy action of the glands and youthful condition, by promoting freeing them from accumulated dirt and the products of stagnant secretion in which acne or blackheads originate. It is bettei’ to .make use of the steam bath at night rather than in the morning, so that the pores may close before the skin is exposed to outdoox’ air.

HOME HINTS.

To clean water bottles, chop up some raw potatoes, pour some vinegar over them, put the mixture into the bottles, and well shake them up and down. Then, when the soil has been dislodged, empty the bottles/ fill them with cold water, shake them up and down again, pour away the water, and set the bottles to drain. Tin-ware and pewter can be cleaned by damping a cloth, dipping it in soda, rubbing the yare briskly with the cloth and wiping it dry. Another recipe: Make a thin paste of whitening and "water, then with a sponge cover your ware with it, let it dry on, and afterwards brush it off. Finally, polish with a soft leather. Soda must not be used to aluminium ware, as it turns it blackish.

KNITTING BABY’S FIRST SHOES.

To knit baby a pair of shoes, use bone pins No. 12 and single wool. Cast on 22 loops, knit-one row. At the beginning of each row knit 1, make 1 by taking up a loop (bring the wool in front of the needle and knit the next loop), and knit plain to end row. When you have 30 loops, knit 7 rows quite plain. Cast off 13 loops from one side and knit 17 loops backwards and forwards for 24 rows. Cast on 13 the same side as you cast off. Knit 7 rows quite plain, Then take 2 at the beginning of every row till you have 22 loops. Cast off loosely. Pick up and knit every loop down one side, across the instep and along the other side on to one needle and knit one row plain. Knit 1 loop* Make 1 (by putting the wool before the needle) take 2, repeat from * to end of the row (this is for a ribbon to be run in). Knit a few plain rows and then another row of holes, etc., till the leg is long enough, then cast ' off. Sew up the sock on the wrong side, drawing in the toe just a little towards a point. Run some narrow ribbon through the holes and make another shoe to correspond. If two colours are to be used, the first part, which forms the foot, should be the darkest; the second part of the shoe is supposed to represent a stocking, and should, therefore, be white. When using only two needles in knitting, the first loop should always be slinped. »