WOMEN MEN ADMIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19697, 26 January 1926, Page 5

WOMEN MEN ADMIRE.

What can he see in her? Fred did not marry one of us, meaning by us, one ot the girls of his own country town. There were such a large number of us to choose from, too. He also had such opportunities of meeting us, as we attended every dance and function we could possibly attend. Even on the seventh day we overran as a sex the choir he belonged to in the parish church. But men are so queer. Even with such choice and opportunity, Fred found it necessary to bring as his bride amongst us a stranger from a neighbouring county. ft ho was not pretty —we were all agreed upon that fact—neither was she smart, but grudgingly we had to admit that her taste in dress was perfect. She was attractive, too, in a way. But what that atraction was wo never could quite define, and what rather annoyed us was the fact that she always wore an amused smile while talking to us, which had the effect of making us feel as if we wanted to excuse or defend ourselves, and for what reason we were never sure. We went to the length of wondering if she wore that amused smile when Fred proposed to her. Now, Fred is not by .any means alone in the position of marrying a woman ot whom his friends wonder where the attraction lies. Relations, we know, are not always ready to approve a man’s choice ot a wife. This, however, is a different matter. A plain girl sometimes captivates the man, though coming in contact with girls much prettier and smarter in every way. Is it possible that man understands us better than we understand our own sex? We are all so sure we women know each other so well, but I doubt it. For why should ’he Freds find such treasure trove in the character or disposition of the woman he marries, when most of the women friends or acquaintances see nothing in her, but that she is just a little homely person. Is it because she is homely ? Does the prospective husband prefer the mind picture of a little homely, hut sweet, woman to share his future home to that of a girl who is pretty and smart, but not so much in keeping with the nest he intends some day to build '! I sometimes think it is because there is so much of the boy left in each man. And though the years go by, he still needs unconscious mothering, though probably indignant at such a suggestion. Thus, in this homely, restful woman of his choice he in some way sees the mother of his youth, who so shared and sympathised m his joys and troubles in the years past. That is the reason why it seems to me that the pretty or smart girl is sometimes overlooked, simply because she is of a different type to what the Freds have been accustomed to think of as the ideal woman. The smart girl, however, is not to be dis paraged by any means. She will make equally as good a wife, no doubt, but to a different typo of man altogether to the Fred of our acquaintance, who chose his homely bride, from the neighbouring county, in snite of the fact that he was surrounded by numbers of pretty girls, whom one would have imagined it would have been an easy matter to make a selection from of a life mate.—A. L. R.