ly speaking, she preserves the lovely
mellow atmosphere of an "old picture," not the blatant colouring of a
lodging-house daub.

But, of course, one of the hardest problems of a woman's life is to
realise just when she must acknowlege that her youthful prime is past.
Some women never seem able to solve it. They either hang on to the
burlesque semblance of twenty-five, or else go all to pieces, and take
unto themselves "views" as violent as they are sour. When they cannot
command the uncritical admiration of the gaping crowd, they descend
from their thrones to shy brickbats at everyone who doesn't look at
them twice. A wise woman realises that although at forty she cannot be
the centre of attraction for her youthfulness alone, she can yet
command a circle of true friends, which, though smaller in number, is
more deeply devoted in intention. But she will never be able to keep
even these unless her sympathies are wide, her heart full of
understanding, unless she keeps herself mentally alert and her sense of
humour perpetually bright. Should she do so, hers will be the triumph
of real charm; and, providing that she grows older not only gracefully
but also cheerfully, not by plastering herself over with chemical
imitations of her own daughter's youth, but by shading becomingly, as
it were, the inevitable ravages of time, which nothing on earth will
ever hide; by dressing not more than five years younger than she really
is--then her attractiveness will continue until she is an old, old
woman. And I would back her in the race for real devotion against all
the flappers who ever flapped their crepe de chine wings to dazzle the
eyes of that cheapest of feminine prey--the elderly married man.

_Women in Love_

Have you noticed how a woman displays much more "sang froid" in love
than a man? Her heart may be aflame, but there always seems to be a
tiny lump of ice which keeps her head cool. Only when a woman is not
quite sure of her captor does she begin to lose her feminine
"un-dismay." So long as she is being chased she can always remain calm
and collected, perhaps because she knows that, however hot her lover
may be in pursuit, the race began by giving her a long start, and,
being well ahead, she can listen in camouflaged amusement to the man's
protestations of her "divinity" as he "galollups" madly after her.
When you come across lovers in that state of oblivion to staring
eyes--as you do come across them so oft