CHARM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 169, 18 June 1936, Page 11

CHARM

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Will you please publish the enclosed article which, I am sure, will be of interest to your women readers. Yours, etc., READER. Oharm is an invaluable possession. Happy should bo the women who is born with it, and lucky she who realises that it can be cultivated. But what is charm? Ah, here is a question that must have been asked innumerable times, and not even the Oxford Concise Dictionary can enlighten us. With engaging mquesty it answers : “All indefinable power of delighting.” One person may behave deplorably and never be forgiven, whilst another may behave equally badly and be readily excused. Why? Because he has charm. Fairies must be at the christening of every one who has that indefinable power of delighting, and they were kind indeed that they made it quite independent of either youth or beauty. No intelligent woman is incapable of acquiring at least a glimmer of the beckoning light. This truth should be a. consolation and an encouragement to many a plain Jane whose inferiority complex invariably pops up in the company of her prettier sisters. They should realise that prettiness can pall, but intelligence exploited intelligently, never. There are several t departments ot charm. The visual, for one- The woman whose hair looks well brushed: whoso nails though innocent of varnish, are polished and scrupulously clean : whose collar and cuffs are freshly laundered; whose stockings are never permitted to wrinkle; whose shoes, cheap though they may of necessity he, are neat and shmv: this woman, in attending to these few details. takes quite a big step towards acquiring charm, for it cannot exist for the worthwhile man without cleanliness. Then there is oral charm sShe who wishes to attract a man must see that her voice does not grate on his ears. She should cultivate low, vet clear tones, and she should never take equal part in a conversation, A man, as a rule, is more articulate and better informed than a woman, therefore if she males her conversation interrogatory for the most part, she mu gain all round. But, of course, merely posing questions is not enough. They must be questions that show that she has been listening intelligently, and is genuinely interested in his reply. Nothing is so boring to have to answer a bored questioner. One of history’s most famous sirens, Ninon de L’Enclos . held her former lovers as devoted friends all her life. Never beautiful in the strict sense of the word, she yet contrived to pre- - servo into old , age that power ot delighting which drew to her, for sympathy a.nd advice, men grown weary of superficial charms.