BROKEN ENGAGEMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 18 June 1926, Page 2

BROKEN ENGAGEMENTS

Low is not necessarily immortal (writes "T.R.H." in an English paper). When a man and a woman are convinced that it is an underlying power in their lives, they may indeeit he counted among the. fortunates of this world. Rut sometimes love is tlie victim of circumstances.; despairingly and unwillingly it does. A love of "love," carefully fostered by the kinoma and cheap fiction, is sometimes to blame. Mary and Jack, hungry for the sickly sentiment so lavishly broadcast, discover a mutual need and a mutual remedy. .And they hardly reCoyer their breath after a whirlwind engagement before they also discover that their interest in each oilier is ended and has left (heir engagement an empty mockery., Again, lovers in the throes of courtship notoriously camouflage their true selyes. They.act,a part in a misguided effort to create an impression—and we really cannot condemn them. Most of us do the same thing.

Even when true love is present, there are certain types of people to whom the partial sacrifice of their individuality demanded by.marriage would be too great. Every marriage demands a certain adjustment of attitude, and to some men and women, the sacrifice would mean life-long misery. In such cases as these love is the victim of an unequal struggle. The trouble is that frequently only the intimacy of an .ensja-gement will reveal the tiu.e state ofi When the unlucky couple reluctantly admit that their love is not strong enough to fight the forces' arrayed again it—What are they (to do? Proverbs are silent as regaids broken engagements. Put while "all the world loves a lover," its attitude it admittedly uncharitable towards those who after a time and that love palls, and decide to break the bonds. j Consequently many people embark on what will obviously be a voyage of matrimonial isisery rather than face the jeers and gibes of a mischief-making world. Broken engagements are an unfortunate necessity sometimes— but they are infinitely less distasteful than the morass of divorce.