“Please tell me if you believe in long engagements? I have been engaged nine years, and am beginning to weary of the condition. All of my girl friends are married, and they are all poking fun at me. My lover knows this, still he does not seem to mind it an atom. Is he not unfeeling and unmanly to keep me waiting? “Ellen D.” It is very apparent to us that your lover is not a lover. He is not worthy of the affection of any good woman. If he cannot marry you himself he should take himself out of the way and give some more enterprising man a chance to win you. A nine year engagement must be very stupid. You have our sympathy. “I am very much perplexed about a simple matter, and I feel sure that you will help me to straighten the tangle. A young man who calls upon me is apparently very much in love with me, yet in spite of the fact that he has been calling for three years, he has never said so much as a word about marriage. I am twenty-five years old and am getting very anxious. If he does not propose pretty soon it will drive me to desperation. “Alice C.” You seem to believe that marriage is the chief end and aim of woman. If you are so anxious to marry you had better “pop the question” yourself or else try to get a new lover who will be more speedy in his declarations. Possibly the young man has not yet made up his mind as to your worth as a wife, or possibly he has not money enough to marry, or some such reason. Rather than distress yourself farther, I should certainly ask him his “intentions.” It will at least “straighten the tangle” and show you where you stand. If you were thirty-five instead of twenty-five, there would still be ample time to marry. “I am anxious to ask you a question, Miss Shirley, and I do hope that you will not think I am silly. I am very fond of kissing, awfully, awfully fond of it, and I hug and kiss my sweetheart just as often as possible. My mother says I am far too forward, and that I will disgust him if I kiss him so often. I should die to lose him, but what can I do? The minute I see him I want to fly at him and kiss him. “Minnie.” My dear Minnie, you are certainly in a very bad way. Have you never heard the adage that “familiarity breeds contempt?” There are men in the world who really enjoy osculatory demonstrations such as you delight in, but there are others who prefer an occasional kiss, and, as your mother says, are disgusted at such frequent outbursts of affection. We would advise you to break yourself of the osculatory habit. An occasional kiss contains far more of the nectar of bliss than the “continuous performance” which you seem to indulge in. A woman cannot be too chary of her kisses before marriage. After your sweetheart is your husband, we shall feel very differently. If he has stood the fire of your affection and crowned it with matrimony it is safe to suppose that your temperament pleases him.