The Modern Young Person.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XX, Issue 6209, 19 March 1895, Page 4

The Modern Young Person.

(Rita, in Belgravia.) The Young Person sat alone in her Study, as she called it. A smile of infinite enjoyment on her lips. She was seated in a lon<j low chair, softly cushioned, and extremely comfortable. Her ancestors, feminine, had only known a hard straight article, and back-boards, but the Young Person had been unimportant then. Those days were over. On the table beside her lay a box of cigarettes, the current number of the New Review, and the last novel of Zola's. On her lap w-»s a copy of the " Heavenly Twins." The Young Person had read it and chuckled. There had been times when poor tortured authors and authoresses had been compelled to write a sort of Bowdlerised literature, for fear her morals might sustain injury. But those days were over, and the loung Person grinned delightedly as she thought of it, and thought too, how easily she had, even in those days, circumvented the watchful mamma The idea was exhilarating. There seemed but two words in the whole gamut of the dictionary worth considering. They spelt • Emancipation' and 'Revolt,' How kind, how extraordinarily kind, people had been to take all this trouble for Her. She really felt the pronoun deserved a capital. She was so very important now. They had written books, aitfuliy disguised as fiction (but the Young Person knew better than that), to show her what she was and what she might be, and what she ought to exact from Man. How she could actually turn that once formidable being into a poor baa-lamb of meekness, who must be guided and led by her. Yes, and best of all, who must tell her—her—(innocent, bashful, ignorant Young Person !)—the whole history of his Past before she would accept him as a husband, or bestow on him the inestimable privilege of finding her in clothes, rent, food, and other trifles. No wonder she grinned. It was really the most excellent joke £ There were other jokes too, following swiftly on the heels of this. She was to be instructed in certain delicate obligations, conditions, and moralities of sex that previous generations of Young Persons had never been properly acquainted with. She was, in fact, not to be given one apple from the Tree of Knowledge, but all. As many as her greedy little maw could munch, or her admirably organised digestion assimilate. She was to know—everything. The Young Person's present idea of everything -was Man . . the Young Man. What he did, how he lived, what he called ♦'seeing Life." What fast women, and dancing girls, and burlesque actresses said to him. It seemed to her that their conversation must be beyond all things interesting and delightful or why should the Young Man favour their society? The Young Person had hitherto held an Ideal- It represented man as something god-like and heroic, capable of doing marvellous things for her sake. Ready to fight every Dragon of circumstance and opposition, so only in the end he might ■win that glorious prize—Herself. The Yonng Person despised her own mother immensely. She was an admirable housekeeper and very particular about the kitchen dusters! The idea of anyone bothering their heads about kitchen dusters! As for ordering dinners—well, anyone could do that. You had only to get a cookery-book and follow the menus in that fcr every day of the year. She lit a cigarette and wondered if. after all, she would be much better off for the fuss that was being made about her. One learnt everything one wanted to learn —in time —and if the fear of marriage was instilled into man he wouldn't marry at all, and that would be very disappointing. A generation of old maids, even emancipated old maids, did not appear a very lively prospect. Women never said nice things to you, or appreciated your * ways.' The young person flicked off the ash of her cigarette into a curious little brass tray. It had been presented to her by one of her admirers. She had several, and she passed them in review before her now on the new emancipation principles. Finally she laughed. ' I declare I'll marry Jim,' she murmured. ' Father always says he's the biggest scamp of the lot. 11l undertake bis reformation. He's sure to have the most interesting past!'