A TALE THAT IS TOLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17882, 25 June 1926, Page 11

A TALE THAT IS TOLD.

THE GOSSIP THAT HURTS IS THE GOSSIP THAT’S TRUE. “I don't speak to Joanna Henderson nowadays,” said .Fenella-Fay, with flushed cheeks and a steely glint in her eyes. . . ". . She. fa Iks behind .people’s backs. Why, she actually said that I knew which side my bread vas buttered when I married. Cecil I heard about it in a roundabout way. ...” she finished, mysteriously. “Well,” said her candid friend, ‘ she said I was frightfully self-centred, too —behind my back! And, honestly, you know, there is a wee bit of truth in it where each of us is concerned. And I know I’ve said a good many

things about her that I would sooner she didn't hear.” And if Fenella-Fay only knew it, there wouldn’t be a single pernor amongst her wide and varied acquaintance who hadn't said things about her behind her back, at some time or another. And if she would think hard, she would realise that she hadn't a single friend herself whom she hadn't said some little thing about, which she .would sooner that friend never heard. Wherever she had been, she must remember how the conversation nearly always-—sooner or later—- ; would centre around one person, and some nied things, and some things that were not quite so nice—said about that person. And if she had heard everyone she ever knew just slightly' criticised in an adverse way' sometimes, why should she think she is the one and only person

who is never—or must never be—discussed ? It isn’t natural. Where there are mutual friends, there must be mutual discussions. And everyone of those friends will in turn have small things—true small things—said about them that they themselves would sooner not And the wisest thing to do—the only thing to do. if you wish to keep vour friends—is to turn a deaf ear to all these little tales that are told.