MANAGING HIM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16320, 8 January 1921, Page 6

MANAGING HIM.

Several of us wore discussing an intelligent, charming little woman whose once promising marriage was turning out rather unhappily. y They ought to he happy,” someone said. “They have three jolly children, and they -are both young, and they are not very poor. And she’s so bright and capable, such an aw’fullv good pal to her husband. Yet he’s always about with another woman—nothing really serious yet,” she hastened to ndd ; “ just one of those innocent flirtations which are really so dangerous.” Then an observant woman who knew them both diagnosed the trouble. “ It is this,” she said. Connie is too honest. She’s too good a pal to be a good wife. She treats her husband with almost the same kind of coihradeship he’d get from another man. she’s one of those modern women who hate scenes and like to be themselves. She loves her husband, but she won’t flatter him. “And that,” she concluded, “is the trouble. Every man likes flattery, and if his wife won’t give it to him lie is bound to get it elsewhere.” It seems to be that here is a very real problem, and one that especially concerns the very modern woman who is not mated to a very modern manThe woman of to-dav likes sincerity, and she finds it difficult to realise that man himself lias to be emancipated from many conventions. _ She to be honest in her marriage, but she finds that she succeeds better if she is not honest. She discovers that slie can keep her husband’s love more successfully if she flatters him, manages him, manipulates his moods, surprises him. She finds that “old-fashioned” women do this and keep their husband’s love, and that men, so far from disliking the little feminine tricks and artifices she scorns, really enjoy them. What is she to. do? If she is a philosopher she will take her man as he is and minister to him accordingly, but there are many women who find it a hitter thing to give up their sincerity. The modern woman has to sacrifice much for the sake of a happy marriage, and perhaps the greatest sacrifice is this of the honesty she has so lately learned.—(Bv Barbara Dane, in the “Daily Alaii.”)