REAL OR IMITATION

New Zealand Tablet, 24 September 1908, Page 37

REAL OR IMITATION

Somehow I cannot feel very friendly and cordial toward Miss Bam,' said one girl to another. ' She does not ring true although I cannot tell just what the trouble is. Do you ever feel much like that when you talk with her?' ■ '

The other girl laughed before she answered : ' Yes I do and I had often wondered if anyone else felt so. But I think I know what lies at the root of the trouble. She is not the real Miss Bain at all, but only an imitation.'

' What do you mean?' was the astonished question, while visions of an impostor masquerading under the name of a-» absent girl floated through her mind.

Again her friend laughed. 'Oh, not that she is not the actual individual, but that she tries to be different from what she really is. Did you ever notice that she simpers almost exactly like that silly Miss Bee, and tosses her head like Jennie Williams, and says, " Really, how funny!" just like Sue Brown and lots of other things like other people? When she first came here she was a quiet, pleasant little person with a cheerful laugh and a. rather old-fashioned but attractive way of saying things I suppose she thought she had better try to be up to date— you know, she came here from a little country village But she has spoiled her own individuality and gained nothing by trying to adopt thaNof. others. It does not fit here, and if she could see how much nicer she was when she was the real Miss Bain and not a patchwork of half a dozen girls, she would surely change back as quickly as ever she could. Don't you think so?'"