BEAUTY AND HAPPINESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17568, 19 June 1925, Page 9

BEAUTY AND HAPPINESS.

“1 wish—how T wish—l were beauti- j full” sighs Joan as she frowns at her , nice, kind face in the glass and notes j all its imperfections. That cf the girl j she had gazed at last night in a private box at the Albert Hall had been daint- j ijv oval and pink and white, lovely as j a poet’s dream. Joan was in the gallery. but through Jim’s glasses she had j feasted her eyes on the vision of blue j and silver, noting even the row of j gleaming pearls she. wore. “That’s Ladv Alice II said a ; voice whose owner was looking m the j same direction. “A ou know! The wo- | man in the Lawson case. Her picture j was in all the papers.” < : Joan thought of Lady Alice all Lie wav home, as, with Jim’s hand comfort- . ably tucked beneath her arm, she walked with him through the quiet back .streets that led to her boarding-house lim talked about his work, his last football match, and what furniture his mother considered would be absolutely necessary for the little home they were some day hoping to find. ... Such humdrum things!. ‘Now. if I were Ladv Alice.” Joan thought wistfully, • he’d be telling me that my eyes were like stars and my hair a tangle of sunbeams ! ” Well, it's possible he might have been, for Jim, like most men, has a strain of poetry beneath his prose, and beauty as exquisite as that of Lady Alice is ‘ not met with every day. . But what he gives Joan is worth more than admiration, or passion that liares and burns and— flickers out. What attracts him io her is her very self--the smiles and tears, the virtues and weaknesses .that go to the making of her. And so his iove is in no danger, of sudden death should beauty fade or lose its charm. It is the love that lasts. Have you ever thought, you dear Joans with homely faces, not beautiful, but bright with youth and health and pleasant with kindly thoughts, how beauty, splendid gift though it be, may handicap its possessor? A lovely child is often self-willed—and what wonder, when from her parents downward everyone conspires to spoil lier? Omv a miracle of grace can dispel the selfishness fostered throughout her girlhood bv a circle of adoring friends. And even should she remain unspoilt in the case of the girl who must earn her own living, beauty handicaps her from the start. The head of the office she wishes to enter will discount her attainments against the distraction she is likely to cause a too-susceptible staff, and wherever she goes her promotion will be attended by whispers of favoritism. The man who should have been her rightful mate may be kept from her side by fatuous boys, and the man she marries grows weary of her once his jov of possession is exhausted. .V gloomy picture, though I don’t suppose it would prevent one girl in ten—in a hundred!—from being ‘beautiful" if she could! For no normal girl was ever born who did not share Joan’s longing. In every age. in every clime, women strive to improve upon Nature. Powder and paint, hair dyes and lip salves, have been in use from prehistoric times in woman’s quest of beauty, though we have cniy to glance through history to see how tragedy dogs its steps. Long ere the wonderful Helen of Troy set two nations at war for ten years beauty exacted its price, and in modern days it is still a dower that cannot be lightly envied. And how quickly it fades! A few weeks' illness, a shock of grief, a sudden accident, and the loveliest face is Beautiy by itself will never hold love. A husband’s good looks stand for less than nothing it he be neglectful or unkind.. while the loveliest woman who is vain and heartless is a tragic disappointment as virile. It is character, after all, that counts; a man mav be "as homely as they are made,” and a woman plain to the verge of ugliness; but if hCs "a good fellow,” through and through, and she is tender and true and sweet, no lack of comeliness will shut them out from the blissful realms of happiness.