THE SHADOW-BOXER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 141, 17 June 1931, Page 2

THE SHADOW-BOXER

Just when your new dress arrives she conies. You ae feeling very thrill ed about .it, and she says, “It’s awfully nice, my dear! But do you think anyone with your complexion ought to wear green? And don’t you think it rather accentuates your figure? Middle aged people ought to be so careful not to try to ape the girl!” And, somehow,t every time you wear your pretty frock, you’re wondering if she really was right, and if it does make you look a ghastly colour, and if it does show up a little that extra stone you are so worried about, writes Leonora Eylcs in an exchange. Or you tell her about one of the children passing her exam, and starting on her career, and she says, “How splendid, my dear! But have you ever cooked; there’s a living in it nowadays? I know a dozen really brilliant girls in the same job who can't gel work anywhere.” So you begin to have sleepless nights wondering if all the sacrifices you have made .for Alary’s training arc going to be wasted. Perhaps she comes to lunch, and you have cooked some fish especially nicely, and she says, “It’s very nice, my dear! But have you ever cooked it so and so?” Take no notice of her disparagements —they mean nothing at all. They arc a sort of shadow-boxing—she is quarrelling with herself, not you, when she says these unkind things. Chaff is the best weapon against her

—chaff is something she can’t, catch. _ can’t light with, can’t throw back at you as she could the heavier stuff of argument.