=Some advice.=--Shun sudden emotions, cultivate sincerity, covet neither beauty nor wealth, be true to the best that is within you; don’t be in a hurry to become engaged; the first chance may not be the best; wait for the coming of your prince. Until he comes, don’t trifle with your affections or the affections of a gentleman friend by making marriage engagements. This is dangerous, as well as a very great sin. When you have found your prince, you should not postpone marriage by a long engagement. It is not necessary or wise to wait until you are as well equipped for housekeeping as your parents now are. =Long engagements.=--If your prince is healthy, industrious, economical and has a few hundred ahead; or if he has a good education and a good position, with the other qualities, he can make a living for his family. If either of these conditions exists, a long engagement should be avoided. If either of these conditions does not exist a definite engagement with a man would be unwise. =Hasty marriages.=--The other extreme of hasty marriage is to be condemned. If marriage takes place when one or both are immature, the offspring must suffer. If an engagement follows a very brief acquaintance, disagreeable qualities may be discovered later, to be followed by a broken engagement. Hasty and brief engagements often terminate in the divorce courts. =Closing advice.=--When friendship has ripened into love, the vital question being asked and answered; fraternal relations established between the families; and the engagement is a blissful reality, what then should be the rules governing the young woman’s ethics? Inflexible rules would be difficult to give. Much depends upon the man to whom she is engaged and the length of the engagement. During the pending engagement both should remember that they are not married, and hence there are liberties in the married life that are not theirs until the civil phase of marriage has completed their oneness. All embracing and sitting in each other’s lap should be entirely avoided. Pictures, showbills and post cards have taught in recent years some very vicious lessons to the youth. An occasional good-by kiss between the engaged, at the close of a call, just before parting, unaccompanied by an embrace should result in no harm to either. She should be frank, sincere and earnest, versatile, entertaining and affectionate, but very discreet. If she follows these simple and essential rules, she and her prince will be all the happier during their pending engagement and will respect and love each other all the more through life. CHAPTER XXX THE WRONGED GIRL