Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-04-15
Nv MARGARET e. sANGsTER.

nv MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
mopyright.. 1905, by Joseph b. Bowles)
Agatha has been engaged to Thomas
nearly four years. Thomas is in re-
/. ceipt OF a good salary, quite sufficient
10 support a little home in comfort, and
he is constant and devoted in his at
tentions to Agatha. His calls. four or
five evenings a week, have become as
much a thing Of course as the striking
OF the clock. A little after eight, IN
walks Thomas. A little after ten. out lie
goes. Tender good-niehts are e%-
changed at the door. Agatha slips away
to bed. Thomas strolls homeward.
How long is this philanGering to so
on" mntters Agatha's father to he:
mother, in the privacy of their chamber.
For two years they have been obliged,
after our American fashion, to exile
themselves from the living-room. or par
lor. whichever they call it, and spenf
their evenings in the dining-room or
their own room upstairs. Agatha n
her fiance talking. talking, talking, in
low tones like the ripping of a brook,
have %monopolized that part OF the
house. Itseemstothe parents after awhile
that the long engagement is telling
u%nfavorably on their daughters health
and spirits. and they think it time that
affairs reached a crisis. that they cui-
minated in a wedding.
Agatha thinks so. TOO. She is beyond
words annoyed with and weary of the
-:..z4.-, 1-lo r,Act InvAfn1 rNoi,, of on
gagged lovers, in the course of several
years, exhaust their topics of CONVERSE
ton. They are in danger of drifting
into a state Of morbid and unwnolesCme
ennui Were they married, a host OF
common, practical interests would draw
them closer, and give them Il basis on
which to build their house of joy. The
management of the home. the cooking
for two. the mending. the making, the
Identification of the husband and wife
as one family in its front to the world.
help to bind them into that union which
is strong as life itself. .
A long engagement, dragging slowly
and interminably N. when there is no
apparent reason for a delayed marriage.
is a very trying experience to a girl. She
knows that her friends discuss her and
wonder why the wedding is deferred.
She attends the weddings of other
friends. She begins to be socially, par
don the slang, a back number. An ell
gagged girl cannot compete in social in
tercourse with her friends who are still
free. Very likely she has been prepar-
ing her store of linen, and there are piles
of sheets and towels over which she
fingers with that house-wifely yearning
known to women when they are plan.
ming a new home. knew one girl who
waited II years. while her tardy lovei
continued his visits, never even family
abiding to marriage. The memory OF
her girlish Eyes" was growing remote
when her young sister announced her
engagement, shyly adding: Edwin
wants to be married in three months.
don't see how | can be ready" "Yor
might be ready if Edwin wanted you to
marry him tomorrow" said the Older
oma You shall have my things
and the elaborate trousseau. as well as
the beautiful stock of fine linen was
forced upon the blushing bride-to-be
The first engagement was broken, as it
should have been long before.
Our English cousins allude to the
loosely-managed betrothals that over
here so often dissolve in mist, as dang
ling" 1t would seem that dangling
is a thing unworthy an honorable man