SINGLE BLESSEDNESS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4605, 23 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

SINGLE BLESSEDNESS.

(From the Saturday Review.) Few persons who have not some special experience can believe how dull society has become in rural districts. They can hardly realise the stagnation which pervades regions far away from any great commercial centre or military depot. The county magnates, if there are any near, do not add much to the summer and autumn gaieties. They, poor people, are only too glad of a little rest after the fatigues of the season and the session. When they want society they bring it from afar. They make up a party in the house, and have no need of the company of their smaller country neighbors. But to people who live nearly all the year round in one place it is a standing puzzle how they may gratify their hospitable inclinations when they have no good shooting to offer as a bait. _ They are willing to give any number of parties for the sake of tho young folk, but the only element necessary for the success of such gatherings is what they cannot provide. There are no young men to be had. Perhaps in the whole neighborhood there are only two resident gentlemen unmarried, and they probably prefer turnip fields and partridges to young ladies and lawn tennis. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that a garden party is not always the brilliant entertaiument that might at first sight be imagined. The dowagers enjoy themselves fairly well, except when they sharo the anxieties of their daughters. They sit in rows on tho terraco and drink tea ; they spread mild country gossip, wonder who will get tho rich college living just vacant, and hopo it will bo a bachelor not too old. They discuss the flower beds and the arrangement of the colors. They are delighted with a gaudy ribbon border, into which has been introduced a coat of arms in scarlet geraniums and beotroot. They agree that we have at last arrived at a high mediaeval art in gardening. Ono of them says she is going to have a bed made to represent a tortoiseshell cat with her kittens round her. They agree that that will bo beautiful, and " so new." They talk together warmly of their absent sons, who, far away in India or tho colonies, aro serving the Queen, or making themselves new homes in new countries. How valuable one or two of thom would be here ! How tho hostess would welcome thom 1 Sometimes, ono comes homo and flutters tho dovecot. Perhaps he seeks to take a lamb from the fold, or, more likely, ho has already met his fate elsewhere, and looks with only a brother's admiration at tho young ladies ho remembers as little girls. Tho old gentlemen of tho party are at a premium. No matter how short of breath or how stout of limb they may be, they gallantly endeavour to supply tho placo of the young adorer-t who are needed but absent. They hand thin bread and butter, and trip over the croquet-hoops at the peril of their lives. They pay old-fashioned compliments, and love to call up a mild virginal blush. There aro numbers of nice girls on the lawn. They have a sweet country flavor and an air of amiability denied to their town sisters, and quito enchanting, Thoy dress themselves elaborately from patterns which they find in tho Queen, and put touching bouquets of heliotropo and wild roses in their hats. They wear tho palest of glovos and tho noatest of boots, and have learnt how to use

a fan like a Spaniard. They put on horribly discordant colors sometimes, but then pretty fresh bloom kills all the discordance, and we forgive them. They know how to play croquet so as to display their feet to the best advantage. They can pose their lithe healthy figures so as to. look both active and graceful when playing lawn tennis. They persuade themselves that they enjoy garden parties immensely, and never think of such a thing as a lover. They eat strawberries and cream, or syllabub, and endeavor to find a fascination in champagne cup. They talk about the beauty of the day and the loveliness of the view. They go in pairs and tell each other secrets. They gather in groups, and try to get very much interested about what books are to be ordered for the Reading Society. The baby is brought down and covered with caresses ; they flutter round him fondly and kiss his little dumpy hands. The skye terrier stands with •suppliant gestures, and they pretend to be deeply interested when he balances a piece of sugar on his nose. They look at the fish in the pond, and experiment upon the different jets of the fountain. One girl may walk round the shrubbery with a curate, but he is married and the father of numberless children. Talk with him implies ghostly comfort, or, at the least, cottage lectures, flannel, and the church choir. Now and then a married man of more than ordinary courage breaks through routine, and carries off a couple of girls to a quiet seat, whence gay laughter is subsequently heard. But the mother looks suspicious, and does not like such conduct. Suppose this amusing but practically useless man should on a future occasion monopolise her girls when, long-expected, the eligible at last appears. On the whole, gaieties do not flourish when there are no possible flirtations. The parties are much like what the approaching festivities in India would be without the presence of the Prince of Wales. Any entertainment, however elaborate, must fall flat where there are no unmarried young men to be attracted by the pretty ways, the bright eyes, the graceful figures, the innocent prattle of the maidens. Perhaps, however, the one beau of the neighborhood is caught for the occasion. If he is a gentleman, we pity him. It is with feelings of despair rather than of exultation that he finds himself the most important present. For a modest and well-meaning young mau, there can be few positions more embarrassing than that of the eligible bachelor in a country neighborhood. If he is possessed of good looks and pleasing manners, and is besides rich and well-born, his case is serious. If, for some reason, he is obliged to live principally at home, his condition is worthy of the deepest commiseration. He is probably as hard-worked as the Heir-Apparent, and he would require the diplomacy of an Italian ambassador to steer clear of giving offence. He is not at all enamoured of his position. He feels humiliated rather than complimented when the thought crosses his mind that the doctor's five daughters are all affected by the color of his tie, and know to a nicety the shade of his gloves. He would rather they would not take so much interest in the way he divides his hair. He is heartily sorry they have not each half a dozen devoted lovers. He wishes they could experience the pleasure of refusing a proposal once a week or accepting two or three if they liked that better. It is not his fault that there are eight hundred thousand more women than men in the United Kingdom, or that the sexes seem to have changed positions, and that those who were formerly the seekers are now the sought. He does not see why young women are to be sneered at because at a party they like to find young men willing to pay them attention. He sees nothing unnatural in the fact that, when girls go to a ball, they prefer not to be obliged either to dance with each other or to sit still all the evening. He almost wishes the days of Sir Charles Grandison would return, when a lady found it difficult to protect herself from her numberless adorers. But he is helpless. What is one amongst so many ?