DREAMING OF LOVE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15127, 18 February 1922, Page 6

DREAMING OF LOVE.

THE FOLLY OF IT. Most of us knoAv the Avoman of whom T Ayrite, Avho ds living years of Avretchedness with a dead hope in her heart. She is chasing the shadoAvs of a. dead loat, pining for the affection of some man Avho once Avas all the \\-orld to her, but Avho passed out of her life. Years ago he had come along and they Avere fovers. Then somehoAv or other he had cooled, and his affectionate attentions ceased. The dream Avas shattered. Once or tAviee perhaps he had returned and she had seen him. He had tried to be polite and even kind, signs that she mistook for the old flame, and the hope in her. heart had revived, only to flicker out on his departure. 1 But day by day ever since she has dreamed that he will come back and be just as he was in those delightful days Avhen he thought lie loved her and she loved him. Ho had realised in time that his profession of love for her did not ring true, and lie did not Avish to make t\A’o lives miserable. So he passed out of her life, and can never be hers again. Indeed, one hears that he is about to marry another woman. Yet still she cherishes the love that is dead, and will not be comforted. When a thing has turned to ashes, it is futile to try to keep it aliA r e. The very best thing that this Avoman can do for the sake of herself and all around her is to cease grieA r ing and AA r earing out her soul in vain regrets. Cost Avhv it may, she should strive to crush this illusion that he Anil come back to love her. Let her take heart. There are many other good men and true in this world —others possibly even more desirable than this lost love of hers. He may have had certain charms and delightful manners. She may not find an exact duplicate of these in others, but probably there will be compensating qualities. To build up her mind this one ideal is foolish. While she does so she cannot, be expected to see anything Avorth admiring in others. And she is doomed to a cheerless life while she hugs to her heart this dead love.

This concentration on ivhat is now unattainable detracts from her attractiveness to the rest of the Avorld. It overshadoivs her finer qualities, keeps her from making fresh friends, and doses the door to the possibilities of another love. How many a Avoman, a prey to such boneless memories of a love that has failed, has become old before her time, wrinkled, grey, and unattractive, Avliile holding fast to her false hopes. When her beauty and brightness have gone', what prospect has she of happiness in her later years? Let her throw off her melancholy mein, and try to be gracious and charming to others who come her way, ceasing her signs and turning a smiling face to the Avorld. Then it is quite possible that the real, right man may come across her path. The man Avho left her* could not have been her true soul mate Avhatever she may think. His action proves it. By reason of it she may have escaped an unhappy married life. So the sooner she buries her dead love the better.