THREE WOMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19374, 9 January 1925, Page 8

THREE WOMEN.

By Thoir Friend. Marion is so clever that it ia not easy to understand why she should be so plain, until intimacy reveals that her plainess is less a question of features than temperament. Her cleverness is of the. sort that brings complacency inevitably in its wake, for no ono who has heard hor brilliant talk" would willingly lose an opportunity for further conversation were she more attractive in herself. Yet because she has a wider knowledge than othors she assumes knowledge to bo supreme, and hero is the secret of her failure to charm. She goes through life failing utterly to understand that her untidy appearance repels many who would otherwise find her companionship delightful. Marjorie is lovely, with all the graces which contribute to the perfection of girlish loveliness. And she knows her charm, taking good care that others shall know it too. Her bedroom resembles the dressing room of some popular musical, comedy beauty, with all the pomades and powders and perfumes and cosmetics advertised in the fashion periodicals. Her weekly accounts with manicurist and hairdresser alone would keep a working family for a week and she never goes out without bringing back some purchase for her adornment. , Not only is she a slave to her. beauty but others must bow down before it, while she remains oblivious of the discomfort she causes. Helen has something of Marion's cleverness and much of Marjorie's loveliness. But in her cleverness is tact, and .she has a genius for making othors feel they too are clever. Hers is an elusive beauty, yet it is complete in itself, because she knows the art of dressing in just the way which -suits her best. And not only with physical charms does she score her successes. All evening she will listen sympathetically while some dull bore discourses mpon his pet subject, and her eyes twinkle with delicious mirth when she is told he has called her a good conversationalist. She cultivates her assets concurrently. With her no time is wasted upon mere manicuring—with an open book beside hex. her nails are polished to the rhythm of some scrap of poetry she is learning, and while brushing her hair she rehearses the little chansons with which she delights us. She works just as hard as Marian and Marjorie. but—watch the three when a party is breaking up. Marjorie is asking plaintively for a taxicab to be called, Marion is left to pull on her own goloshes—and Helen is besieged by aspiring escorts.— Daily Mail.