PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE COMPETITION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIX, 9 May 1896, Page 535

PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE COMPETITION.

F r iHERE has been a good deal of interest evinced in this competition with the following results. The question to be answered was : • How far may a woman go to encourage a man to propose marriage ?’ and £1 was offered for the best reply. ‘ Remo ’ sends the most epigrammatic,and on the whole the best answer, and to her we have much pleasure in forwarding the money thus won. C. Clyde also forwards a very good reply. Some of those deserving of honourable mention are from ‘Molly,’ ‘Little Flirt,’ ‘Miss Tommy,’ ‘Uncle Sam,’ Mr White,’ ‘Lorna,’ ‘Molly Bawn,’ ‘Amuri,’ ‘Constant Reader,’ Miss Prude,’ ‘A lady,’ ‘A cynical bachelor,’ ‘ A fair maid,’ ‘Mrsß,’ etc. If the young gentleman is making an evening call, it would not be a bad idea for her to go as far as the front gate with him. —Remo. As far as Priscilla the Puritan maiden went when she said, 1 Why don’t you speak for yourself, John ?’—C. Clyde. Rosalind said to Orlando in Shakespeare's ‘ As You Like It ’ : ‘ Come woo me, woo me ; for now I am in a holiday humour an like enough to give consent.’ Women may go this far, and if Orlando won’t propose after going this length, I’ll set the dogs on him. —Constant Reader.

It depends upon circumstances, and temperament of the man. In all circumstances, a woman must be womanly and modest. She may show a man, in a thousand feminine ways, that she prefers him to all other men.—Amuri.

She may go halfway to meet him. A man in love is a man doomed. She may say ‘ Yes, Robin.’ and Robin never knows whether in the upside-downy feeling which came over him when the smiling vision appeared on the scene he or she ‘ popped ’ the question.—Miss Tommy. Don’t try to attract attention. Don’t attempt to fascinate. Don’t spoon in public. Don’t evince marked preference for his society. Don’t express admiration of him to all your friends. A woman may always dress becomingly and neatly ; also show interest in his tastes and pursuits, and regard for wishes expressed.—Lorna.

Just so far as the attractiveness of her person, the modesty of her actions, the delicacy of her conversation, and the magnetism of her eyes, will permit her.—Molly Bawn.

Just as far as she feels he will let her without actually proposing herself. A good plan is to flirt with another man, which usually brings from No. 1 the desired offer of marriage.—Miss Flirt.

Ethel : ‘ I’m thinking of taking a situation.’ Bob : ‘ Aw—indeed ! Governess ?’ Ethel : ‘ No, jolly fear. As housekeeper.’ Bob: ‘Aw! To whom?’ Ethel : ‘ A gentleman of my acquaintance requires a housekeeper, and has—that is to say—l ’ Bob (forlornly): ‘ Don’t go, Ethel ; I want—aw —aw ’ Ethel: ‘ Very well, Bob ; if you want me, say so, I’m quite ready.’—Miss Tommy.

Girls shouldn’t ‘go’ at all. If a man wants a wife he’ll ask some nice woman to marry him. Depend upon it, he may smile at the time when a girl proposes, and accept her ; but, as her husband, he will throw it in his wife’s face, and twit her with her anxiety to secure him at their first quarrel.—A Cynical Bachelor.

If a girl feels certain—and one can generally tell by instinct—that a man is in love with her, and only held back from proposing by her wealth and his poverty, her good position and his inferior one, or by his own peculiar bashfulness, I think she is not only justified, but actually right in letting him see plainly (as any sensible girl can) that he will not be refused if he ventures to offer marriage. Why, for some absurd and far-fetched Madame Grundyish scruples, should she wreck both their lives ?—A Lady.