Page:Sexology.djvu/39

 the purpose of securing the necessary supplies than of seriously submitting the question of approval. Too often a girl is "engaged to be married" many times before the "right one" is secured, and the young heart is "used up" before it should dream of love. We waive the question of propriety in permitting young ladies and gentlemen to hold possession of the drawing-room night after night, to the banishment of their natural guardians, who are too indolent or too careless to discharge their duties of supervision, and inveigh at once against the privileges which, with happily increasing exceptions, are so improperly accorded to those who hold the acknowledged relation of lovers. It is the pernicious custom to accord to these favored beings all the rights of solitude and retiracy that they could reasonably expect if the marriage ceremony had actually transpired. Except a private bed-room, they are as secluded whenever they may choose to be so, as any married couple could wish. "With closely drawn curtains, and with doors either locked or sacred from intrusion, they pass the "wee sma' hours ayont the twal'" in learning the details of passion, and too often its entire mysteries, to the detriment of their physical, and the utter ruin of their moral health.

Only a short time since there appeared in one of our principal pictorial weeklies, a beautifully executed design representing two lovers unwilling to say good-night. The youthful gallant has sunk exhausted into a large arm-chair. On the mantel stands a clock, the indices of which designate the hour, half-past eleven, to which the charming betrothed regretfully points, while riveting a gaze of languid passion on her admirer, who returns it with meaning attention. The whole scene is painfully suggestive, and is chiefly notable in its truthful revelation of our