Dinna forget that. If she cannot get away, she must get a new fad of some kind. Only there is one thing, mother, which pray dinna forget. You must never let her think that you think she is ill. You've got to draw her away from her imaginary miseries, and all will soon be well.
"What would you prescribe for my daughter?" a lady once asked me. "She must eat."
"Then let her have a Shetland pony," I replied abstractedly.
"What!"
"A Shetland pony, and a young one. Oh, not to eat, to ride on, and make a general favourite of. For a time the pony will manage her; then with love and a tiny switch she will learn to manage the pony. After that the fun will begin, and her imaginary troubles will all fly away."
In a month or two the cure was complete, and I used to see the girl—she was young—careering across the common, her bonnie yellow hair and the pony's mane streaming out in the wind and her face as merry as a May morning.
Does Winter damage Beauty?
It need not, if beauty is only looked well after. But how shall it be? Not by powders and paint, dear young readers—dinna forget that. Leave rouge and the rest of it to Miss So-and-so and all the other "quite old things" whom you know. Be ye natural; unless, indeed, you have some real blemish. Dinna forgot you have youth on your side, and youth and beauty are almost synonymous terms. You like Miss So-and-so very well indeed, and my swift has just told me she heard you make the following remark the other day to a companion—
"Know Miss S.? Oh, yes; have known her for ages. Poor, dear, old thing, how well she makes up!"
Well, hug the happiness you possess in being young, to your heart of hearts; but a little tinge of sadness must mar it at times, when you remember that you too must get older and be fain to assume the attractions you shall then no longer possess.