The absent-mindedness of some of us takes exriow directions. There are thave who go patiently on dating their cheque with the of the old year during the first fortnight of the mew. There are others who reali ut-mindedly under ladders D¥asfuily auperatitions until the paint bucket has upset ite contents upon their fo There are still others who step fon the accelerator instead of the brakes when one of those motorist moments of jeopardy arises. And of course there are all those happy wool-gatherers who are always just. a leap behind in the pursuit of their spectacles and fountain pens, Feminine psychologists are profuse in their explanations of these traits which might almost lead us o an inferiority complex did it not gradually dawn upon one that the whole world is somewhat akin in these matters, But some minds do appear to' have the advantage, They hold on. to telephone numbers with the tenacity of a horse-fly, They remember the amount left in their chequing account to the last decimal and they never walk home because they cannot remember their motor ear license number outside the! theatre. These things are by way of reflecting the merely material Personally, I could put up with the constant pursuit of those material] things, a pursuit which shows the uncanny waywardness of inanimate] articles as soon as we lapse from perpetual vigilance.
T could forgive the small of blotting paper which shows. fan unsuspected initiative in burrowing to the bottom of a rarely used heap of papers. I could condone the errant clipping which dis appears at the precise moment when mpathetie friend evinces interest in hearing it quoted before the fire on a quiet evening. I might even be able to do ay the illustrous Mr, Aldous Huxley does in the ease of spectacles, This author, globe-trotting, and alighting hemghel for' what was to one at least-a memorable sukiyaki evening year, declared that he always outraged efficiency when the epistle of several weeks standing shows no trace of the year or day or month lof grace in which it was penned.
T'deem it a vast show of understanding, this having no need of [dates on letters—even on those that the postal authorities have not honoured by a thorough job of post-marking. But psychologists sist that it is a noticeable flaw t the feminine make up; one which even years of methodical application and exemplary discipline can eradicate fonly up to a degrees and one which springs out, like an inherited fond-nest for waltzes, whenever one is taken off-guard" through a" tem porary absence of the mind, Meanwhile letters dated "Tuesday" or perhaps by way of clarity "Monday evening" " continue mount up as convincing proof—in the psychologists' annals—that woman hes wrought much confusion.
Such things I could pass over, smilingly, and with good heart for the contest of trying to remember, shadowed always by. the dire consequences of having forgotten, were it'not for one thing. I can never overlook the obvious slight—when the intangible qualities. were being passed aTound—that I" was not born one of those spiritually secure beings who need no bookmark to point the way to picking up their book again; one of those sensiti fingered individuals who feel t way unerringly and by instinct to the exact full top on the undeniable page where literary excellence. is enhanced hundred times by this Instinctive, appreciation thereof. Jill O'Lantern,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.