LADIES’ EXPRESS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 210, 3 October 1874, Page 3

LADIES’ EXPRESS.

[The Editor will be glad to give insertion to any local contributions from his lady friends that may be considered interesting in the family circle, or to the sex generally. WAITING. Now since we two have counted up the cost And pain of waiting, till one chance is found; Some broader chance than any we have lost, May come to meet us as the years go round. And since we know our hearts will bear the test

Of absence and of waiting; since we know That all love’s whirl of passion and unrest Was calmed for us by duty long ago. And since we know the past, is past beyond recall, We must accept the fruit of its mistake, , And trust the dire “to come ” to give us all We dare not covet now for honor’s sake ; And till that sure time comes, dear love, we must In God, in Love, and in each other trust. And it will dawn for us, that happy day, When love shall overleap whatever lies Between our lives ; and we shall find our way To joys, repaying every sacrifice. We have so little in the present now— We have so much to hope from time to come, We can afford to wait; our true love now Binds us for ever, though our lips be dumb. We take our stand upon each other’s faith; We know each other to be true as steel, We hold each other’s future ; life or death Can neither mar nor alter aught we feel; We work apart, till love, our harvest’s lord, To reap our fruit together, gives the word. H. S. POPPING THE QUESTION. Thb news thrt a second European is about to turn Mahomedan, as a means of getting more married without fear of the law against bigamy, the Homeward Mail says, renders a volume by Mr. Shama Chum Sicar on Mahomedan law—“ Tagore Law Lectures,” —just come from the press, very interesting, for it treats at length on Mahomedan marriages. The first “essential” prescribed for matrimony might seem to cynics to preclude the venture altogether, for it is coolly laid down that “ both the consenting parties must be sane and discreet.” But,passing over that initial difficulty, it would seem as if marriage threatened a Mahomedan of either sex on all sides, and that it would be next to impossible to escape' the meshes which it spread to catch the unwary. A girl may marry herself by a simple smile; she can only escape the danger by complicating it with a sneer. If, when she be asked will she marry so-and-so, she hold her tongue, “ the law respects the modesty of her sex,” silence is taken for consent. If she laugh it is the same, provided the spectators see no reason to believe that she is laughing st them rather than at the proposed bridegroom. A man may be tied up before he is aware. If he say to a woman, “ I marry thee,” or even simply “ Marry me,” and she be prompt and skilled enough to reply, “ I have accepted ” —not “ I accept ” for the present tense seems somehow to be rather loose in its effect—“ the contract is effected.” The same end can be produced in a variety of other ways. If any man is polite enough to say to any eligible party, “ I have given myself as an alms to you,” or in a more mercenary form, “ I have sold myself to you,” always carefully minding his tenses —the marriage is good. And reciprocally if the ardent lover says, “ I have bought you for so much,” and she ans wei ■ “ Yes ” (or smiles a smile without a sneer,) the marriage is contracted. A good deal of care would seem to be necessary in writing love letters, for if a lady says to a couple of her friends, “ Bear ye witness that so-and-so has written me offering me marriage, and that I have accepted him,” the marriage is valid. The only time when a Mahomedan need not be desperately on his guard is when he is either walking or riding with a lady ; the preterite tense does not count on such occasions ; but if he and she be in a boat in “ progress,” he must look out, and at the first symptom of a.departure from the present tense of the indicative mood jump into the river.