THE CALL OF CUPID

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 18

THE CALL OF CUPID

SHORT OR LONG ENGAGE-

MENTS?

Some people sav engagements should be short, vehement and hectic; others, that thev should be long periods of mutual study and analysis (says the “Statesman”). Unfortunately, in both cases what is meant by time is the passage of the months as recorded by the clock and calendar.

I wonder how many men who experienced intense bombardment during the war considered, sav, 24 hours a brier spell of time ? The truth is, of course that it is the amount of emotion and experience that is acquired which goes towards qualifying any two persons to take the great step and link lives. I remember two “lovers” who were courting for something like fifteen years. eYt, it sounds very absurd in these days of juvenile marriages. In the end they took the plunge and were extremely unhappy. The reason for that unhappiness was their - lack of sympathetic understanding of each other. They might have courted for fifty vears and ended in the same w-ay. Year" after vear, during that pallid courtship, thev learnt nothing new of each other. That was the trouble. Passionate lovers who would dash to the altar—or nowadays to the reigistry office—-directlv the little god has got his shaft home, may be, and certainly are, often enough, in an emotional turmoil which precludes clear thinking and an “appreciation cf the situation. Are such marriages of passionate love dangerous and likely to end disastrously? During the war we iaw many such unions' end in shipwreck; but wartime bred an abnormal psychology and we should not generalise from those unhappv instances. I mvself believe that it is quite possible for two young people to find out enough about each other m a few months to justify the great step. After all, it would be rather a poor business if one allowed love to take a place side bv side with business efficiency! lam one of tl> ! se who ’ike nothing better than to see two voum-sters “head over heels” in love. I always hope thev will risk it, even if thev are poor, even if life seems set rgainst their prospects of happiness. The cautious lovers with eves on bank books and thought of unpleasant consequences when writing love letters seem to me somewhat ignoble I prefer the reckless ones, who risk all and think not of consequences. What is the ideal, sort of engagement? Personally, I think it is that which brings two quite voting people together and lasts but a short time. They are vonng and therefore at Hie right time of life for love ami all that love means; thev are voting and therefore malleable. Thev will le.qrn as thev go, acoiiiring experience on the road Is there a risk ? Of course there is, but it is one well worth running.

Borax is even better than carbonate of soda for boiling with green vegetables.