WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 101, 19 October 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

(Conducted by "Eileen"). i ' r -'$ \ DISILLUSIONMENT. I The room was dimly lit and full oi the sceut of flowers —lilies and rose* dropped their heads in graceful fatigue out of sparkling crystal vases. The purple satin curtains, embroidered with golden dragons, were drawn; logs of wood burnt on the tiled hearth; their ruddy flames danced and struggled with the gathering shadows and dull turquoise of the Persian carpet. The teatable, with its cups of majolica—fashioned with a delicate and infinite charm —was drawn up close to the fire. Everywhere there was a perfumed warmth and a deep silence, which the low singing of the kettle, on its silver stand, only emphasised. In that room one woman waited for Fate. The firelight fell about her; on her fair features, her compressed, red mouth, and on the dusky brown of her velvet dress. "Whatever the verdict is, it can make no difference," she thought; "if it be the worst," her eyes clouded, "who could nurse and care for him better than I? while if it, as I hope—as I believe—" Then the door opened noiselessly, and the man entered. "You!" How much one syllable can sometimes convey. . . She put her hand in his thin one, and with the other drew forward a chair, into which be sank gratefully. "Well," she asked anxiously, "you have seen him ?" "I have just come from there." "And ," her voice quivered. "The worst," he said briefly, unsteadily. She caught her brcith. "He gives me a year—two at the outside, and that only if T leave Australia," he continued. "It cannot be," she exclaimed passionately. • "Hut it is, dear friend; and, after all, to me it is really no shock. I have known " "You have imagined," she interrupted quickly. "Well, imagined, if you like it better," he conceded, with a little smile at her eagerness. There followed a, short silence, irUU i she placed a cup of tea on a table at his side, and then went to her place, j "I must leave Melbourne at once," he\ pursued, thoughtfully, more to himself than to her. ; "Where will you go?" "I don't know," he answered sadly. "I hate the idea. I am too old to be transplanted. When one has lived all one's life in Australia " "It is high time to begin to see a little of the world," she said. "Perhaps, but I doubt it." Then he was silent for a while. The ' ;harm of his surroundings seemed to envelop him like a caress. It was all so pleasant—the dim light, the odour of flowers, the dreamy warmth and drowsiness suggested by the contrast of the cold evening air without and the atmosphere of the room. It swept over his tired senses like wine. He closed his eyes for a moment in delicious contentment, while the woman watched him with her soul. Then he unclosed them. •'Perhaps you are right," he remarked, "only I am so insular, so terribly Australian, and yet you yourself are very home-loving." "1 can easily imagine circumstances that might alter that," she said quietly. He looked at her. "I am glad to hear that, because—because it gives me hope-—" He paused; he was reluctant to go on. She flushed right up to where a few stray grey hairs were amidst the brown. "Yes," she murmured. "Marion!" he exclaimed abruptly, leaning forward to where the firelight threw its reflections on his pale fea-, tures, "if this news had not come to' me I was going to ask a woman whom I love to.share my life, but now that is impossible." "Why?" she queried, and her heart beat in quick jerks. | "Because it would be cruel, unmanly!" "I do not think so." "You don't?" he exclaimed. "Not really?" "Xo —not if she loves—" Hi* face saddened. "Ah! that is what 1 don't know. 1 am afraid she would never—think of me in that way." And the man sighed. fc Have you asked her?" "I have always lacked the courage." "Then, how can you tell?" Her low tones held a note of joy. "Oh! because she is so far above me, so beautiful—so—in a word, all that 1 am not." He had risen, and was leaning against the mantelpiece. "\ 7 ou cannot think what an angel she appears to me." "If that is so, perhaps it would be all the more reason for her to love the sinner," she said, softly, not looking at him. "You don't know what happiness your words give me," he exclaimed, simply. "I am glad of that." "And you don't think it would be hideously selfish of me " "No, I feel sure that she cares for you, so you owe it to her." The steady voice was very appealing in its earnestness. He leant forward and took her hand in his. "I thank you, Marion," he murmured fondly, "you are the kindest friend a dying man could have. She whom I love" —he paused. "Tell me, do I know her?" she ventured with suppressed eagerness. "You know her well," he answered gravely, still holding her hand, and looking down at her. "Her name!"—her eyes were swimming with happy tears. "Thank God—thank God!" That was the echo in the woman's heart. "'Her name." he replied, ''surely you have guessed? Her name is Ethel— your little sister Ethel." A sharp cry sprang to the listener's lips, but she held it back. " 1 must be very stupid," she managed to say at last, "for I should never have thought " "Rut why not?" he queried. "I am always here." "Ah! I had forgotten that," and she laughed a little awkwardly. Then, after a second or so, she rose. "I will go and find Kthel," she said, and she moved slowly towards the door.— .Hugh Umeret. in" (lie Australasian.

A RETURN TO NATURE CORSETS AND CIGARETTES BARRED. There is to be no more bartering of American ladies for foreign titles; loveless marriages are to cease; and the cigarette is to be discarded as a necessity for the up-to-date society girl. These are some of the reforms which Beatrice Farnham Otto, a Boston and San Francisco artist and sculptress, expects to bring about by the establishment of an "Independence Colony" in Monument Park, near Grand Junction, Colorado, where the girls of high society, and the daughters of working men will be brought together to be taught new ideals of a sane American life. Mrs. Otto says that the girl of to-day n a "mere doll," and that she does not altogether blame them tor tneir attitude towards life because of the way they are brought up from babyhood;

She has been interesting some of her wealthy friends in her ideas, and they are enthusiastically in favor of it. She intends to use her own private fortune to carry out the scheme for making the America! girl again the independent creature she should be. Within a few weeks, Mrs. Otto expects - to start the colony with about a score ! of girls, with whom she is acquainted — not only heiresses, but poor working | girls—who, she believes, will benefit by / a life in the open. j Mrs. Otto, as Beatrice Farnham, left J her home and the Boston Art School more than five years ago because she was disgusted with modern society. She has spent the intervening years in San Francisco art schools, and the major part of her time among the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, living their life and putting behind her the education she received in Boston society. "•I would sooner trust the lowest type of Indian whom I have seen than the gilded youth who ranks high in the 'Four Hundred' of either New York, Chicago or Boston. The woman of to-day has more chance to maintain her self-re-spect in the West, where man is supposed to be rough and uneducated and uncultured, than in the drawing-rooms of the millionaire," said Mrs. Otto, in talking about her new scheme. "I believe there are but few people who disagree with men when I say the attitude of the American woman towards marriage is all wrong. The girls of today are brought up with the idea firmly fixed in their minds that they are the drones of society. How can you expect a girl reared under such conditions to be anything but a silly doll? She is brought up under such enervating conditions that naturally if she is a child of wealth, she will turn to the cigarette and the cocktail as a stimulant for her jaded nerves. And if this sort of thing were confined to our heireses —our members of the exclusive set—it wouldn't be so bad. But the ways of society are I imitated by the daughters of the poor. The girls are allowed to take life, easy j while their mothers slave day and night I to give them this life of idleness and laziness.

"ISo what they have in their youth j they want when they marry. Poor girls are always looking for princes in dis- j guise—some men will- promise them a life of idleness in the' future, as they have been accustomed to since childhood. That is one reason why we hear of so many girls of poor parents being wronged by sleek villains. They are brought up to it. Loveless marriages are the rule rather than the exception both among the poor and the rich. "If some of our modern society girls who are imbued with the crazy notion tf marrying a title will join with me in "Independence Colony' I will guarantee that they will sopn forget what environment taught them, and take a Bane, •ammo* sense, American view of life," she continued. "I suppose, first of all, that the members of the colony shall return to nature—that the girls shall Uye a natural life. "We will discard corsets, and hats, and puffs, and powder, and give the girls the real complexion. Tan is a good asset for anyone, man or woman. It betokens health—and health is wealth. We will live in the open, and try to forget the false notions which have meant so much to many of our young women. Cigarettes and cocktails will be tabooed. Colorado air and sunshine are exhilarating enough for anyone and quite as intoxicating for some. "We have no idea of establishing a free love colony, as some have suggested. Marriage to-day is a mockery, and not founded on love except in exceptional instances. It is our idea to change all this by an open-air life, which will get the poison of years of false environment out of the minds of ihe members of the colony. "I also intend to invite poor girls, who need Colorado climate for their health, to join the colony. It will be a mutual concern, all sharing the expenses, excepting, of course, those unable to do so. In those cases I shall use my own fortune to make the colony pay its way until it becomes self-supporting. Eventually there will be thousands of girls from all parts who will be anxious to take a course in Independence Colony,and as soon as the first set of my friends have become thoroughly imbued with the new idea of seeing life, I shall expect them to start other colonies."

WHEN SHOPPING, The following simple rules on shopping might with advantage be learned by heart by many women:— Systematise your shopping. Have a definite idea of what you want. Write out a list of the shops where your wants will be b»st supplied. Ask for what you wish in a clear comprehensive manner. Remember that one has no right to waste other people's time. Observe the same courtesy toward others that you would expect yourself. "Please" and "thank you" are easily Mild. Don't buy a thing because it is cheap. If possible do your shopping alone. Count your change and be sure to have an error corrected promptly. If you have ar. account keep a daily memorandum of purchases, otherwise small sums will mount up, and you will be appalled at the amount of the bill at the end of the month. Be just about allowing the person who arrived before you to be served first, even if the saleswoman turns to you instead. Carry home small parcels yourself. If you are a person of leisure avoid shopping on Saturday evenings. With many it is their only time to shop, and the saleswomen should not be needlessly overworked. Above *ll try to be cheerful and unselfish, and it will pay. As you treat the world eo it will treat you. TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR A WIFE 1. Thou shalt love no other man but him. 2. Thou shalt not make to thyself any ideal, for thy husband is a jealous creature, and thou shalt not arouse his passion. 3. Thou shalt not speak to thy husband in tones unbecoming to a lady, but thou Bhalt always address him kindly. 4. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day; six days shalt thou labor and do all thou hast to do, but the seventh is the Sabbath; thou shalt don thy nicest attire and entertain the husband as thou didst the lover. 5. Honor thy father-in-law and thy mother-in-law that thy days may be peaceful. 6. Thou shalt not kill the affection of thy husband by continued fault-find-ing. Pet him if thou wish to be petted by him. 7. Thou shalt serve him three square meals per day if thou possibly can. 8. Thou shalt not steal money from his trouser pockets. Thou knowest his financial ability and act accordingly. 9. Thou ehait treat thy husband as thy equal and work for his interest. 10. Thou shalt not disturb thy husband's pipes, nor his Morris chair, nor anything in his den. Thou shalt endeavor to make his home a pleasant one that thou may bear with pleasure the name which he has given thee.