Will you give your life into the keeping of one about whom you know almost nothing, and try to silence heart, conscience and reason by saying to yourself, “A fine home, costly garments, money and social position will make up for all else that is lacking.”
God forbid. All that the world has to offer cannot make amends for the absence of true love and the respect and confidence that should give it stability, neither can it stifle the voice of conscience, which says, “I told you the truth, and you would not listen.”
Sometimes girls are impatient of parental control, and to escape from what is only reasonable and right, determine to rule in a home of their own. They use the hackneyed saying that marriage brings affection with it, but too often realise that the parental yoke was light indeed when compared to what they have voluntarily assumed.
I think I see you turning reproachful eyes upon me, and hear you asking, “How is it that you, who have known such wedded happiness, speak as though you looked on marriage as a thing to be avoided?”
Patience, dear ones. I have been drawing word-pictures from life. You have listened patiently; now I ask you to bear my words in mind. Between this and our next Twilight gathering ask yourselves if any of my warnings have come specially home to you, or if you are in danger of wrecking your own young lives and bringing sorrow on those who love you, in any of the ways against which I have lifted up my voice.
(To be continued.)
[ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.]
STUDY AND STUDIO.
An Appreciative Reader.—There are many books of instruction on painting, by the help of which you might make considerable progress. You might try Brushwork, first book, by Miss Yates, published by Philip & Son, 32, Fleet Street, or Brushwork, or Painting without Pencil Outline, by Miss D. Pearce, published by Charles and Dible, 10, Paternoster Square.