MISS SCHOOLGIRL, 1926

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12423, 17 April 1926, Page 15

MISS SCHOOLGIRL, 1926

HER CHEERFUL SACRIFICE

Schoolgirls and chocolates were once inseparably associated in the mind of the most casual observer. But The young person who has set herself vastly different standards since the munch-ing-and-crunching days would sooner spend her pocket money on a shingle. A really ehio hair cut at a good barber’s affords her more joy than the most expensive and succulent product in the most “arty” box. The mani-T curist is more popular than the tuckshop merchant; and a continuously varying supply of crepo de chine hankies takes easy precedence in her affections over the lbost toothsome rourrons glacis or petits fours.

Boarding-school competition grows ihorfi and more acute. After the holiday? thero are -meriting dormitory inspections of now sartorial acquisitions, from jumper-suits to lingerie; and in the upper forms the rival merits of face-powders and complexion creams are discussed with a -seriousness rarely accorded to Latin verbs. Susie’s bulging home-packed tuck-box has nothing like the allure of Maisio’s newest perfume, with spray, wheedled out of some misguided Christmas-present-sliowering aunt-. In my capacity of suryeillante at a, Frenoh boarding-sohool ’ I have just been listening to a typical conversa-

tion: “Thanks, no, cherie I I won’t have |a, toffee. My dentist has warned me that X must be careful.” “But your teeth are so strm»g and white! Do try just one caramel. Mother made them herself.” But Marie-Therese is adamant, though regretful, for Louise is her bosom chum. “Ghee Lulu, I really daren’t. Teeth are such an asset, you know; the most important feature after one’s, eyes, don’t ,you think?” There are tremendous discussions, too, as to the relative skill and style of the two coiif-mrs “in town" whom the girls patronise. There is the “Monsieur Jacques” set and the “IbeblanC et Ci 9.” contingent. A difference of a few centimes in the price charged by the latter experts lends the right aura. To patronise M. Jacques is a confession of parsimony or a slender purse either of which excludes Mademoiselle from the super-elite. Young snobs, every one of them, in this good Repuhlio <yf la belle Francs 1 Sometimes the heart of the surveillanta yearns for the chocolate-munch-ers who went to sleep-with “Little ■Women” or “The Heir of Redclyffe” under their pillows, even though she had sometimes to get up in the night to apply oil of cloves to an overworked molar!