“Frances T.”
We would advise you to start a petty cash account and try to get your husband to set down his expenditures. When you have accounted for every penny that you have spent during the week it will be his turn to do the same. If he refuses, you must talk to him kindly and try to show him how necessary it is to keep out of debt. Troubles like that have destroyed the happiness of innumerable families. There is a leakage somewhere in your husband’s pocket-book, but you can only find it with the aid of tact and kindness. If you command him to explain he is likely to be more extravagant than ever.
“I am a saleswoman getting ten dollars a week, and I have a little flat for which I pay fourteen dollars a month. The expenses are pretty heavy, and I am often at my wits’ end as to how I shall pay them. A gentleman whom I know is anxious to board with me, and says he will give me five dollars a week for his room with breakfasts. I am eighteen years old and very much in love with this gentleman. Would it be improper for me to take him as a boarder?
“Evelyn T. G.”
It would indeed be very improper for you to take the young man to board. Can you not get a nice, congenial girl friend to go in with you and bear half of the expense?
“Will you kindly answer the following questions which are worrying me greatly: How can a girl of fifteen tell when she is really in love, and how old a man ought she to marry? I have two lovers, a boy of seventeen and a man of forty. I like one as well as the other. Which shall I marry?
“Amy.”
We think you would be foolish to marry either. No girl of fifteen is fit to marry. Wait until you are old enough and wise enough to consider such a step, and, above all things, wait until you are sure you are in love. There will be no uncertainty when the right man comes along. You should develop your talents and graces in order to be ready for him.