No. observer of m and customs to-day can fail the increasing number of young men Who are marrying women older than themselves. "More especially has this been apparent within the last year or two.
There is little doubt that the matrimonial age of grace for women is extending. "When does a woman to be eligible for the ket?
was a matter for astonishment Austen's "Miss Lucas," at the age of 27, was taken to the altar by terrible Mr. Collins, who was surely the most unattractive curate the world has ever suffered.
But the Miss Lucas of to-day may safely spurn her Mr. Collins, for she has a good 10, or even 20, years ahead of her in which to pick and Look round the circle of your own acquaintances and contemplate the number of newly-married women on the wrong gide of 30.
A bride of 28 is a normality nowadays, and it is the bride of 18 who is hailed as a phenomenon, Young men of to-day in choosing their wives are far more attracted by the wisdom and culture of the thirties than by the immature crudit-
No longer is it tantamount to the breaking of one of the obscure laws in the Ecclesiastical Marriage table if a man chooses to marry a wom five or six or even many more years his senior if she is sufficiently attractive. And she is attractive in nine eases out of ten.
There is no doubt at all that the period of women's beauty has been ded, and extended almost. in-
What the beauty call "Liéternelle Jeanesse" is simply a matter of sd, and common scase. women's paper pertinently, "didn't really get going until she was 40. Why lag behind Helen?"
The Real Reason?
But the real secret of women's i creased charm is more than skin th the surface show of women's emancipation during the last dramatic 40 or 20 years a very real and quiet revolution has been in progress, a revolution that largely the result of an evolution.
We are in this twentieth century witnessing the emergence of woman Just as truly as a prehistoric world witnessed the emergence of man.
Woman has (with astonishing suddenness) ceased to be merely a plaything for man's lighter hours children, 7 and the prospective mother of his
She has ascended to an equality with him in his most constructive
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.