An Answer to Every Question

"Send in your questions frankly, for the editor of this section is prepared to answer you with the same frankness."

Q — I am certain that my husband has been unfaithful to me; what am I to do? Is it possible for me to continue in a marital relationship?

A — The matter depends on you: if he confesses to you with remorse, and you are able to forgive him with all your heart, there is no harm in continuing your marital relationship with him. Very often a crisis such as this, when it is handled with wisdom and patience, leads to greater understanding and a stronger love between husband and wife.

Q — I was engaged, and my fiancé left me on the pretext that I lack the qualities of femininity. What does that mean? And what are the signs that show in a girl who lacks such a quality?

A — Nothing is further from a man's heart than a mannish girl — that is, one lacking in femininity. There are certain signs of this, which I set before you in the form of questions:

1 — Do you prefer not to tint your fingernails red?

2 — Have you studied, or wished to study, medicine, or law, or engineering, or the natural sciences, or journalism?

3 — Do you like to wear shoes with low, mannish heels?

4 — Do you carry a case for your cigarettes, or a lighter to light them?

5 — Do you like dancing with girls of your own sex, so that you may lead them?

6 — Do you love children? And do you intend to become a mother after your marriage?

7 — Do you incline toward personal independence by way of employment?

8 — Are your hands large and your fingers long, or is your figure taller than usual?

9 — Do you like to talk with men about business, world politics, and the latest scientific inventions?

10 — Do you feel that group outings, evenings of good company, and dancing parties are dull affairs?

If you are so, my dear Miss, then you lack some of the qualities of femininity.

Q — I am a beauty. Yet this is now the third time that I have failed in my engagements: what is the reason?

A — There are ladies whom God has afflicted with the misfortune of driving men away from them, though they be of the utmost beauty. This may show itself in the following things:

1 — In unaccustomed behavior that draws more attention than it should, whether by way of dress, or conversation, or gait. Yes, a man loves a woman of striking personality — but within the bounds of the accepted social conventions.

2 — In her playing the part of the one who desires the man, not the part of the one desired by him.

3 — In her showing that she does not depend upon the man, whereas a woman ought to show a man at least a little of her dependence on him.

4 — In her contradicting the man's opinions and belittling his points of view before other people.

5 — In her constant striving to be the target of every eye and the center of conversation in company — a thing that often annoys her companion.

6 — In her imposing her wishes upon the man without leaving him room to express his own wishes in turn. And if he once invites her to dinner or to spend the evening with him, she squanders and spends extravagantly, without taking his financial means into account.

7 — In her conceit about her own intelligence. For a man usually turns away from a woman who tries to prove that she surpasses him in intelligence, and takes to the woman who acknowledges to him, in deed and in word, his mental superiority over her.