FRENCH ENGAGEMENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1926, Page 3

FRENCH ENGAGEMENTS

V (‘•Dorothy Hock in ‘Daily Mail.”) I Getting engaged ill England is a cheerful, casual business. “By the wav,” you sav, meeting Uncle George in the Strand, “I’ve got | engaged. Yes, we’re getting married next month. Oh. I say it is lipping of you! You’ll blow in on the day, won’t von?” . j Distant relatives who live in Australia, old school friends, business con- 1 nections, and so forth, probably know nothing about the matter till they read of the birth of your eldest son. • • | Til France . . how different! On getting engaged (a matter which has probably been planned years beforehand by far-seeing parents and carefully engineered at the right noincut) a correct young man will instantly sit down and order five hundred faire-parts to be printed. In these little printed cards his parents have the pleasure to faire-part that he has become engaged to Mademoiselle So-and-So. These are sent not: merely to every member of the family but to practical I v everyone ho has ever met in his life. If ho is an officer he will send one to every one of his tegimental comrades, past and present, to the camarades de promotion of his Si. Cvrien days—to all the innumerable personages be lias met ill the ionise of his military existence! His printers bills must he enormous. He spends his engagement days in getting to know the girl’s family. He is dragged round, weary but uncomplaining, to innumerable relatives, knowing that ho is the subject ol merciless scrutiny, aware that be must not for an instant stop being enthusiastic, tactful, and charming. When the almost interminable visits are over on both sides, the respective families will begin writing each other polite letters the omission of wnun would stamp them as people with no . savoir-viyre. - ~ ..

‘•I find in Chiffon.” nous one or her future uncles (after half an hour s inspection). “n sensitive, pliant nntui. a poetic mind, a sweet and reasonable temper. Ah, with such a wife, « golden does the future spread before our Robert!” , f i Tn England, should any Lucie t el obliged to make any comment at ell. he would probably observe that Hob . oirl seems rather a ioll\ littl - ■ But it is unlikely that he won onr put pen to paoer to inform his militlti ent nephew of the fact. . The Englishman, as a matter ot tact, is far more concerned with his view of his choice than his The Frenhmcan, family-ridden to the ninth degree, cannot grasp this, x once herd a Frenchman protesting on the subject to an English

friend. ‘'But blood,” cried he, “is thicker than water!” “Absolutely,” said the Englishman characteristically, ,; but—ah. I prefer water!”