HOME TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13872, 5 October 1908, Page 3

HOME TOPICS.

INTERFERING BUSYBODIES.

This plaint of the sensitive girl'is that she has had plenty of good chances of falling in love and being fallen in love with, : bub that other people have always stepped in and spoilt everything at. the very, outset, of affairs. And she adds that she doesn't think it fail". No more it is. Girls suffer a great deal from interference, and young men do, too, much more so than the generality of people think. There are numbers of embryo love affairs in the world to-day, that may end in happy marriages, or may. just be snuffed out like a candle, according to the way in which, the onlookers who watch the game treat it at the very outset. Don't imagine it is only the chief actors in the drama of love who are potent to bring affairs of the heart to a fortunate or unfortunate conclusion. Believe the sensitive girl when she says that they have the least tc say in the matter, not the most.

It is when the first dawn of more than ordinary interest in a. man and a maid for one another Is observed, that their friends should step most warily. They should'-not tease the two by uttering sly innuendoes and making shrewd remarks concerning their evident mutual approbation, for in the case of very shy-lovers such treatment is quite sufficient to nip the romance in the bud. The young man fools that his attentions, thus remarked upon, are becoming too serious, and that lis must check them, or merit the chance of being drawn into an engagement lie is not absolutely certain he desires; while as fox■; the girl, the discovery that others have noticed what she thought was so nebulous as to be imperceptible, namely, her growing interest in this young man, is terrified when a playful allusion is made to it, lest he should think she has been "leading him on "

Instantly Iter manner towards him changes, l?er innocent joy in his evident preference for her is altered to a defensive chilliness, and the more" he advances the further she retreats, until he, very naturally thinking her feelings muet have changed,' abandons the quest for her approval altogether. Numbers of young couples, on the other hand, are prematurely hurried into engagements by the " nods and becks and wreathed smiles," levelled at them by their relatives and friends. Good-humoured sallies make the lover fancy he has gone too far to retreat, and the damsel does not dare to merit the opprobrium of having played the flirt. So she consents to become the bride of ? man she scarcely knows. Engagements thus " teased" into being result in a break-off in many instances, whereas if the two had been allowed without comment to become known to one another, the engagement when it came about would have been the result of mutual love. Upon so wonderful an evolution as that of true love the onlooker should look in reverence, silently and unobserved.

NOVELTIES IN STATIONERY. . Some people seem to steer clear instinctively of all the. little worries of existence. If they want more stationery, they pin their last remaining 'half-sheet to a-stores' order form, and request'a ream or two by return. These contented beings, by some irony of fate, nevea seem to suffer the agonies of indecision which perplex the woman who wearies of the same notepaper as she would of the same hat-shape, and has to make the momentous decision as to whether till© "Duke" size of last year is becoming impossible, and whether a. packet or two of "Emperor," with envelopes to match, is not a wiser choice. As a matter of fact, to stray into unknown paths when ordering notepaper is not always wise, unless such technicalities as " thick mill finish," " vellum wove," and "superfine cream laid," which, are as incomprehensible as Sanscrit to most people, mean more than a mouthful of finely sounding .words. It is,, however, in the, printing that possibilities are contained of originating some novelty, and nowadays, ■ when so much is done in the matter'of fancy stamping, a wide field for personal taste lies in the carrying out of new designs. One of the latest favourites, where ordinary notepaper is concerned, is the monogram which is printed in black and white and dark grey and white, and which gives Hie appearance of having been hand-painted in water-colours on the surface of the paper. .The grey and white are shaded into the black outline of the letters in such a way as to appear as if the characters were snowbound, the wintry aspect being, besides, increased by the use of the pale pearl-grey stationery which is becoming so fashionable. ■•. ( ' Crests represent a revival which is being taken up at present with great enthusiasm. Of Lite years, although a few conservatively minded people continued to head their stationery with a tiny boar's head or mailed arm—as the case might beit was not, however, considered in the best taste, even as a heading to paper, and the crested envelope flan could not bo countenanced for one moment. This year, however, a return to the old-fashioned habit of introducing crests wherever possible is to be a., feature of the new stationery, and like the favourite yachting correspondence of the dav, where the name of the craft or the burgee appears on the flap, envelopes will bear a crest, or, failing this, in many cases will be marked with the address in the same distinct coloured lettering which appears on the enclosed sheets. . • • , As regards colours, bright and dark green on pale duck's egg paper, deep violet on light mauve, and scarlet on white or orey are the favourite shades, the characters being either distinct and rathe* large, or, as was the ease earlier in the season, almost insignificantly small. Medallions in mother-of-pearl alternate with Louis XV. designs "of scrolls and shields in pale colour.* wilji faint gold lettering, a large medallion in the centre taking the address, while the initial, monogram, or Christian name is traced in a. smaller shield or square in the left hand' comer.