AMONG THE BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15548, 4 March 1914, Page 12

AMONG THE BOOKS.

She says she can't' believe the truth. Exactly; .it's the most . difficult thing in • the world to believe. Anybody can believe a lie, .but only the most clever people can believe , the truth. Julie isn't clever 1 , No},bat we are, Mibbs." Certa,inly," assented Mibbs, " very young people are." " I belong to the oldest profession in theworld," Aid Basil—"the profession of existing without one. 1 belong' to the idle poor. I live excellently on charity' and debt. I have to dress nicely. It is a duty to 'my friends. I increase my debts to show my respect for society." — " The Perfect Wife," by Joseph Keating. To a young girl a confidant is almost as necessary as a lover. Some people marry because other people have done so. It is in the air, like clothing and art, and not eating with a knife. • A kiss in the morning, another at night, and, for heaven's sake, don't bother me in the interval: that is marriage from a man's point of view. I .1 have often thought that dogs are a very superior race of people. They are certainly more highly organised on the affectional plane than man. Primness is the most everlasting, indestructible trait of humanity. It can outface the Sphinx. It is destructible only by death. Whoever has married a prim woman must hand ovej his breeches and his purse, he will collect postage stamps in his old age, he will twiddle his thumbs and smile when the . visitor asks him a question, he will grow to dislike beer, and will admit and assert that a man's place is the home—these things come to pass as surely «s the procession of the seasons. —"Here Are Ladies," by James Stephens. . When a girl asked Mark Twain his .favourite motto, he, answered, "Not guilty!" ... Have you heard about Welly Smith? You know she's been »■ :belle for years: she ntust be 35. The other night Tom Ridgely kissed her, and she looked at him as innocent as a baby, and said, "Do you know you are the first man that ever kissed me?" He said, " And you are first woman I ever kissed. Will you marry me?" " No," she said, " I don't want to marry a liar." He said, " I don't know that I do either." " What became of Nelly- Smith and Tom Bidgely?" "They got tired of being witty, and got married."— Beloved South," by Mrs. T. P. O'Connor. It is well known that most of the doctors in Harley Street have marie gigantic sums simply by telling people to go to bed. Every one like* to stay in bed now and then, but people who are up always make it their business to interfere with people who are in bed, and it. takes a doctor's sanction to ensure peace.— "Cupid Goes North," by Martin Swayne. Selection in sex attraction will always be somewhat of a mystery to the human race, out,of so many, to be drawn to the special "one, nothing adequately accounts for it; money cannot purchase this magnetism, beauty cannot command it; a well-guaVded secret of nature, destined to harass rather than please, for it makes life more difficult, though doubtless productive of additional interest; life would be robbed of its most thrilling adventures, did sex but desire sex as a sex, irrespective of individuality.— Pearls," by Charlotte Mansfield. ' " If a woman makes up her mind that she wants a man,*he generally gets him," he said, ."And if; two make up their minds about the same man, what then?" she asked. " Then he chooses--" "the richest?" " Not always.'' " Very nearly always." "Or goes" to Salt Lake City," " I have never known that happen." Nor I. He chooses the one he wants, and the other declares that he is provincial, or that she hates baldness, or that his ears stick out, and people still go on saying that a woman can. marry whomsoever she will."— "Green ■0