NOT QUITE "QUITE."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

NOT QUITE "QUITE."

A STORY FROM THE PAST

Jimmy wasn't " quite" my social equal. If is people had done splendidly for him, and ho had been a clever schoolboy and had won many scholarships and had got on; but, all the same, he wasn't " quite," writes someone. When I announced my intention of wearing .Jimmy's cheap little diamond ring on the third finger of my left hand a horrified family screamed. 'I heir opposition made me mulish—it. does, you know! For a whole year 1 stuck out, and there we all were, fighting and argnirtg, and being beastly to each other. [ shall never forget what it was to have a happv home upset in I hat way. Then T learnt sense. There were little things that Jimmy did, he could not help it. poor lamb, because they were ingrained in 'him. The way that ho curled his little finger when he drank a cup of tea; the way he talked about people being "ladylike" and "gentlemanly." . Ifis little slips of speech, "me mother," and " at'ome."

Arid his mother. ;i perfect old darling, but a 1 itll o loss "quite" than Jimmy! .1 realised tli.il when we grew older Jimmy would he sizing me up by his people and their standards; that I should slip into his ways, and all the while it would grate, grate, grate and grate again! I should lie so ashamed of him before other people, and it must he dreadful being ashamed of your husband. Xo, franklv it wasn't worth it.

It- wasn't easy admitting a mistake, but it was the only brave thing to do.