Though she managed to pick plenty of beautiful rushes as the boat glided by, there was always a more lovely one that she couldn't reach. "The prettiest are always further!" she said at last, with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off.
Have you always secretly thought Brigham Young had a sensational idea when he advocated several wives for one man? Do you inwardly envy the Eastern potentates with their harems? You needn't resign yourself to romantic Walter Mitty daydreams. Just marry a Gemini girl. That way, you'll be guaranteed at least two different wives, and on occasional weekends, as many as three or four.
Naturally, there's a small catch. The difference between a girl born under the sign of the twins and a harem is her apparent lack of interest in earthy passion. It's hard to get her to settle down long enough to take passion or anything else very seriously. Her mind is always traveling, and she keeps up a pretty good running commentary simultaneously. But look a little deeper. Somewhere, hidden among the several women who make up one Gemini female, is a romantic one-one who is capable of intense passion, if you can manage to make the mental, spiritual and physical blending complete. How to develop her and still enjoy all the other women bottled up inside the Geminian personality may create a problem. I can tell you that one Gemini girl equals several women. But I'm afraid it's up to you to delve into the advanced algebra of sorting them out. Each individual case is different.
Her age will be an important clue to what you can expect because until she matures, romance is only a game to her. She can be fickle and unpredictable to an incredible degree. First, she'll be ecstatically carried away by your smile and your voice, even the way you walk. Then she'll reverse her ecstasy and criticize everything from your socks to your haircut, and she usually does it with such clever, sharp sarcasm, you may need iodine for your wounds. Now, don't let this put you out of the market for a Gemini woman. Remember you're getting at least two for one, and that's indisputably a bargain.
Mercury females aren't as heartless as they seem to be at times. Their active imaginations create many fantasies. Romance is the easiest way they can express them, and Geminis have at least twice as much to express as other women. A Gemini man can be a producer, a singer, a sailor, a lawyer, an actor, a salesman and the chairman of a few boards of directors all at once and express himself ad infinitum. But a woman can't very well swing all that, or she would be considered a little freakish. Not that Mercury girls don't pursue careers. They do. Almost every last one of them. But under the existing conditions of society, a career still doesn't offer her as many opportunities as romance to try out her myriad theories and practice her emotional gymnastics.
The Gemini girl needs your pity, not your anger. It's painfully difficult for her to really commit herself to one person at a time. While she's being impressed with a man's mental abilities and his intelligent wit, another side of her is noticing his antipathy toward the arts or his lack of response to music and poetry. When she finds someone who's appropriately creative, who's at home at the ballet or in the literary world, the duality pops up again. Right in the middle of a stroll through the museum, her other self will begin to wonder if he's practical enough to make a living or if he has enough common sense to know where he's going. I trust you're beginning to have a more sympathetic understanding of the conflicts peculiar to those born in June.
Give her credit. Shell usually manage to keep her bewilderment at her own complex character to herself, and not burden you with it. She's a lively and gay companion. Most of the time (when the mood is on the up-swing), she'll sparkle with a vivacious personality, amuse you with her clever, witty remarks, and converse intelligently about almost any subject under the sun. She enjoys all the sentimental gestures of romance and has no trouble making conquests. No woman you've ever met will delight you with more imaginative ways of loving you and such appealing charm. She can flutter her lashes with delicate femininity, but she's not at all helpless when it comes to earning her own living. A Gemini woman can play the giddy party girl to perfection, flattering a helpless, trapped male right out of his mind and his bank book. But she can smoothly change into a demure and adoring housewife, from which she can quickly switch into a serious intellectual who studies the great philosophers and talks about politics or poetry brilliantly, then suddenly turn into a bundle of raw emotion, full of nerves, tears, and fears. She's certainly not stuffy or monotonous.
If you think this is an exaggeration, remember the late Marilyn Monroe. Every man she ever knew, from Carl Sandburg to her hairdresser, saw her as a totally different person than the other men who thought they knew her, too. Place a photograph of her as the seductive love goddess next to a picture of her wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a babushka and no makeup, seriously intent on a lecture about Russian authors. Then add a third and fourth shot of her in a gingham apron, learning to bake a cheese soume for a husband whose athletic talents and warm, human qualities she worshiped-and walking sedately beside another husband whose intellectual abilities and literary talent she deeply respected and admired. Add two more photos. One showing her with a tear-stained face, full of longing, after losing her third another shot of her in a bikini, gaily laughing with a handsome French movie star on the Riviera. These are not posed pictures. They were snapped when she wasn't even looking, let alone seeking publicity. It's a perfect example of the eye of the camera exposing all the women contained in one Gemini female, who successfully kept her multiple nature hidden behind the image she chose to project the most frequently.
Your Mercury-ruled girl longs to be "really, truly in love," but it keeps eluding her. She yearns for motherhood, but often that eludes her, too. She finds a different perfection in each man she meets, as she restlessly searches for the one man who has all the qualities she needs for happiness.
You'll find her a great pal. The Mercury girl will go along with you on anything from scuba diving to speed racing-bicycling or badminton. She'll show an interest in all the outdoor sports, and still manage to look as soft and feminine as a powder puff, with a mind as fast as a whip. The Geminian sharp mentality will show clearly when her curiosity is excited by any new subject. Her Mercurial mind will let her see all the intricacies of your creative ideas, and she'll probably throw in a few promotional schemes of her own. As long as you don't demand consistency from her, she'll be completely fascinating.
It's only fair to warn you that this girl can sincerely believe she's in love, and find other men attractive at the same time. Unless she's near you all the time, she can forget you quicker than a woman born under any other Sun sign. It's her nature to accept change, even seek it. Until she leams to control her devoted courtship of constant activity, neglecting to cultivate patience and stability, the Gemini female can make quite a mess of her life- and yours. Fortunately for the men in love with them, most Geminian women settle down into a deeper understanding of their own natures before it's too late.
Once you've proposed to her and she's accepted, you can pity all those men who are doomed to a life of monogamy with just one woman. You'll have several wives when you marry your Gemini.
Wife Number One will be able to adjust to anything you require of her. If you require faithfulness, she can manage that, too, providing you're interesting enough to have won her real love. I refer to that blending of mental, spiritual, and physical compatibility, with the physical part added last, like the paprika, after the other three are well mixed. This wife will never sulk if you take a new job out of town. With her ingenuity, taste, and sense of color, she can make a new home look lovely with a light touch of her dainty, clever hand. Besides, she'll love the adventure, and there will be no nagging reproaches that you're gambling with future security. The excitement of new horizons interests her more. She may have a surprisingly good head for business and she'll back all your original ideas. You can count on her to go to work if you need extra income, and she'll be pretty practical about how to spend it. Although she may give an outward impression of flightiness, she's not as nighty as she appears. She's a thinker, and a very clever one, underneath all the bright small talk.
Wife Number Two will be moody. You might just as well expect it. She'll have her satirical moments when she can be cynical and flippant, by turns. At the same time, she'll challenge you mentally. But a man needs to be stimulated, doesn't he? Go ahead, top her in an intellectual argument. (It's what she secretly wants anyway.) This wife won't be easily shocked by life or have any preconceived prejudices. She may decide to march in a protest parade or join a sit-in and forget to come home until midnight. What if you do have to join the fellows while she's out making a speech or going to night school to pick up a few extra credits? At least she probably won't hound you with • suspicious questions about who you were with, where you were, and what you were doing. Don't question her, either. You're on the honor system. So is she. This one is a highly independent individualist.
Wife Number Three will be bored and depressed with housekeeping routines. The beds will be unmade and the dishes will stand in the sink while she daydreams, reads, or writes the outline for a play. She may serve you a can of beans for 'dinner without even bothering to open the can. But you can have the most soul-satisfying conversations with her into the wee, small hours. She'll sympathize with your frustrations at the way life has treated you. She'll satisfy both your emotional and your intellectual cravings, be curious about your opinion of Buddhism and excited about your attempts to write a song. In short, she's pretty good company. She'll be very affectionate, too, since you haven't bugged her about dusting and baking and all that nonsense. This wife may make a mess of the checkbook now and then. But if you suggest a sudden camping trip or a few days in Las Vegas, she'll enthusiastically pack her suitcase without a bunch of silly objections, like how it's going to affect the budget or who will feed the Siamese cat and what if the bathtub leaks while you're gone.
Wife Number Four will be a gay and laughing mother. She won't let the children restrict her, because she'll probably have too many projects going constantly to smother them with over-protectiveness. They'll imitate her independence and benefit by it. If anyone asks her how much time she spends with them, she'll probably answer, "In our family, it's not a matter of how much time. It's a matter of how much love." And she'll be right. The children may not always obey her, because she's inclined to be emphatic one day, then melt and give in the next, but the youngsters will love their long talks with her. Her imagination will match theirs, and they'll amuse each other. She'll probably be a permissive mother, but she'll worry about scholastic averages, and she'll probably insist on good grades. They won't get by without doing their homework if she can help it, although they may get by without hanging up their clothes.
Wife Number Five will be a beautiful hostess, an expert at the whole candlelight, flowers, and sterling silver routine. You can bring anyone, from your boss to the Governor home to dinner, and she'll be so gracious and charming, they'll never want to leave. Shell organize her life efficiently and effortlessly, dress like a fashion model, and love the theater. You can take her to art galleries and concerts- she'll be right at home in any kind of society. Everyone will stare at you enviously and wonder who the glamorous woman is who hangs on your arm so sweetly. She'll be romantic and ultra-feminine, maybe even write you a poem for your birthday. You'll want to buy her velvet dressing gowns and expensive perfumes because her gracious style will make you feel like a country squire. If you mention a trip to Europe, her eyes will sparkle. She's a sophisticate.
Well, there you are. I may have missed a few girls in your Gemini harem. Every husband in town will be green with envy when they see you with a different woman every day. If they ask you how you get away with it, play it cool. Polygamy is against the law, you know.
Your Gemini woman will never take a train when she can fly. She'll never be silent when she can speak. She'll never turn away when she can help. And she'll never walk when she can run. Her mind is full of so many thoughts and her heart is full of so many hopes, she may seem to need a computer to sort it all out. Or does she just need someone who can run beside her and toss dreams with her from here to tomorrow? If you're that man, she doesn't dare look over her shoulder to see if you're near. Some deep, unexplained fear within her keeps her from ever looking back. When you finally match her speed, get her to slow down to your pace. You can do it if you hold her hand tightly and never let it go. Though Mercurial north winds drive her on, secretly she may long to rest awhile more than you know. Do hurry and try to reach her. She needs you.