should not be shelved, and driven off to the vague period
called middle-age, without excellent reason. The woman of thirty-eight
and the man of forty-five will spoil their children immoderately while
they are little, and be out of touch with them as they grow up. The
average mother of sixty is unable to keep pace with her young
daughter. The man who is nearing seventy has travelled very far away
from his son who is just starting life under present-day conditions.

The Best Age.

What is a suitable disparity between the ages of man and woman? A girl
of two- or three-and-twenty and a man of twenty-eight or thirty are my
ideal of a suitably matched couple.

{42}

Young Lovers.

"Love at twenty-two is a terribly intoxicating draft," says a writer,
and the sight of young lovers is one that softens all but the most
cynical. We smile at their inconsequence; tremble, almost, at their
rapturous happiness; yawn, it may be, over their mutual ecstasies,
still we know they are passing through a phase, they are lifted for
the time being out of the commonplace, and we make excuses.

But these blissful young people are apt to take too much for granted.
Because Doris worships Harry it does not follow that her family are to
be inflicted morning, noon, and night with his presence or his
praises. She has no right to imply that every moment spent apart from
him is wasted. She has no call to give up her share of household
duties or to forsake her own studies, just to wander about restlessly
counting the minutes till he shall come, or to spend the intervals
between his visits in dressing for his next appearance. She should not
look bored directly the conversation turns away from him, or exalt her
idol over those who have loved and cared for her since infancy.

Young Men who Woo Maturity.

There seems to be a tendency nowadays for the surplus years to be on
the woman's side. This is, in most cases, a grievous mistake. The
girls are often to blame for it. In the pride of their youth they snub
the young admirers whom they do not think worth their notice. An older
woman knows how to heal the wound thus inflicted, and with her
experience, her greater tolerance, and her charms mellowed, but not
yet faded by age, she can win passionate devotion from one of these
singed butterflies. She welcomes him with a dash of maternal
tenderness in her manner, she takes an interest in his doings and
subtly flatters his vanity, while her own heart