The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-07-12
Eliza's Courtship
Plan
BY JESSE DOUGLAS

g. 1922. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
The preiiminaries of courtship
had progressed smoothly enough.
Fred Titus had known Eliza Stone
only a month; they had danced to-
gether, ridden together, motored to-
gether. Fred had called several
times at the apartment where Eliza,
with another young woman, lived in
town with a distant cousin of G to
act as chaperone. He had also spent
the day at the Stone country place,
where Eliza spent week-ends-this to
give Eliza'S parents and brothers and
sisters an opportunity to say pleasant
or unpleasant things about him. SO
far, sc good. 1t seemed as If the
ing desperate love to Eliza and being
accepted-would be supremacy easy.
ELIZA has q lot of funny notions"
suggested Mrs. Clifford, who played the
role of chaperone, one day when Fred
dropped in the apartment on his way
from a canter in the park before Eliza
had come home from n of her lee
lures. "She likes men and h thinks
a lot of you-it isn't that she is averse
to marriage. But she takes herself
seriously, or at least with a different
sort of seriousness from that of girls
when'I was young"
This only served to spur Fred on
to the final declaration of his love.
He determined that the time should
be that evening and the place, IL
Mrs. Clifford would have the good
grace to leave them alone, would be
the apartment where he was then
sitting.
And Mrs. Clifford did make or find
an excuse and pointedly remarked as
she left Eliza and Fred together after
Eliza had returned from lectures tina
she would not be back until half past
six, and that Hazel, her other charge,
would not be back until after dinner.
SO there was an hour and a half be-
fore them. Surely troth could be
plighted in that time after, after all
preliminaries had been so carefully at
tended to.
Eliza refused to be the least bit SEN
timental. As soon as he launched out
on a definite proposal she seemed to
command all her powers of reasoning.
I've been doing a lot of thinking"
Eliza began. "Of course 1t would be
the easiest thing in the world to give
in completely, yield to the natural in
clination and promise to be yours for
ever"
"Then you love me-Eliza-please.'
"Don't be foolish or impatient. That
isn't really the point at issue. l tell
you l have been thinking a lot lately.
Girls have the hardest roles to play
In this question Of choosing mates. A
man goes ahead from the time he Is a
boy and searches out his natural bent
and educates himself to that one goal
an view. He wants to be a doctor, or
Ehe wants to be a financier, or he
wants to build a house-and all his
education is directed to that end. He
marries and he goes right on being a
doctor or financier or a carpenter n
his wife lives in a realm Of doctoring
or financing or house building for the
rest of her married life.
"But when a girl starts In to edu-
cate herself she has in the back of her
mind that, though she would perhaps
rather live in the realm of doctorlng
or financing than anything else, she
had better not become too specialized,
because, after all, the chances are that
she will marry. To become too spe-
cialiZed rather units one for marriage
that is, unless one Is lucky enough
to marry a man who has specialized
in the same way that she has. She
always goes about with the feeling
that she might marry a lawyer or a
writer or a college professor n that
she mustn't do anything that would I'M
fit her for anything. So you see a
girl wastes a lot of time and mental
energy.
81 discovered this state of affairs
some time ago." continued Eliza. Il de
cided that l really did want to marry !;
that l was best suited to a married
life. But | also wanted to have some
thing to do with doctoring. Every
one tells me that my talents all lie in
tlldl dllCIliOhs w, tiob6h = oh hDt
studying medicine for a degree, i have
begun taking courses at the medical
college. l am going to marry a doc
tor
but suppose the doctor doesn't turn
up? That is, suppose you don't hap
pen to fall in love with any of the doc
tors that want to marry you"
Eliza smiled a little indulgently.
"You put things so bluntly sometimes"
said Eliza. my point is that a woman
ought to be specially educated to be
a helpful and intelligent wife, and
that it is easier to select a husband
to suit your capabilities than to modify
YOU capabilities to suit the first man
you take a fancy to"
THAT'S certainly a very interesting
theory" agreed Fred Titus. "And you
are quite frank in explaining 1t instead
of beating around the bush and keep