BEST AND RICHEST YEARS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 227, 25 September 1907, Page 3

BEST AND RICHEST YEARS.

Diane de Poictiers was thirty-six .when she won the heart of Henry 11. The King was half her age, but his devotion never changed. Mdlle. Mar was most beautiful at forty-five; and Mme. Recamir between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five ; The most lasting and intense passion is not inspired by the two-decade beauties.

The old saw about sweet seventeen is exploded by the truer knowledge that the highest beauty does not dwell in immaturity. For beauty does not mean alone the fashion of form and colouring, as found in the wa^xen do)l. The dew of youth and a complexion of roses sometimes combine in a fact that is unmoving and unresponsive, as though lacking utterly the life spark. A woman's best and richest years are from twenty-six to forty.

In the course of years, however, a time arrives when the coming of age must be recognised, when the muscles begin to relax, the skin to lose its polish, and roundness and softness give place to angles. Contentment and good humour will still outrival all medical inventions as a preservative of youth. A woman, beautiful in all else, but wanting mirth, will grow old, sour, thin and sallow, while the merry, fun-loving woman will be fresh and sweet, despite life's happenings and sorrows.