Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-01-10
A CONSPICUOUS OPPORTUNITY,
"Why don't / get married?'

''Why don't get marricd"'
81 wonder if there is any process of
law or condition of ethics that can pro-
tect me from that question: -and Miss
Margaret Winthrop turned sharply
round and looked at her brother-in-law
rs il. for reply.
DR.. Ainslee looked up from his paper
with an expression that evinced a GER
tain enjoyment of the chase, rather
than a sympathy with the pursued. and
nswered:
'Yes, there is ono means of escape"
''And that is to get married, sup
pose?'
Exactly
Miss Winthrop was not sOothed by the
suggestion. She regarded it as an I'M
wholesome state of civ liZation in which
woman with handsome income and
natural bias toward contentment
could not pursue her own course with
out being headed off at every turn with
that imbecile query. Among her friends
she was spoken OF as eccentric, a woman
who unfortunately had ideas; and,
.yhile possessing inestimablc advanta.
ges. had signa.ly failed to make any use
of them. This allure was all the more
conspicuous from the fact that in her
first season she had promised much.
She had allowed brilliant opportunities
TO slip through her fingers one by one
until she had brought the reproach of
spinsterhOol upon family tn It within
the memory of man ha married its
daughters young and well, and, for any,
thing the world knew to the contrary,
happily. She was twenty eight to-day.
This was the view taken of the situa-
ion by her friends. Miss Winthrop re-
garded it from different point of OBJ
servatiOn. She knew many things that
the world could not know concerning
the alleged felicity IF various members
of her family, past and pres mt, who
had married early and "well." Then
there was the inevitable entail of care
and suffering Why any sane woman
should fly precipitately into the conse-
Guences of marriage when she had the
benefit of other peoples exp rience as
warning was something Miss Win
throp had never understood and did not
seek TO explain. She mad all womau's
horror of being called an ..old maid"
though the immun. ties Of sIinsterhood
were at times alluring. 1t had never
been her deliberate intention to Join the
ranks of the belated sisterhoOd. OF
course she intended to marry at some
time, but why be-in haste? Did not
every married woman of her acquaint-
auce admit that courtship was the most
delightful part of all, and that antici-
pations of post nuptial felicity We're apt
to resolve themselves into an unsatiS-
factory anti-climax? OF course. no
well-regulated woman wanted to be an
old maid, but conceive the want of
foresight in the woman who married
her first lover. thus putting it out OF
her power to en- oy aga n the delightful
experience OF courtshlp. when by re ect-
ing him she could 60 on repeating it
indefinitely with fresh sub ects and I'M
der an infinite variety of conditions
She that loves and runs away
viii live to love another day
was Miss Winthrop's motto: that mar
riage was. like death. thing To be de-
ferred rs long as possible and accepted
finally as heroic remedy for something
worse was her philosophy. Being
twenty-eight to day she felt that the
tiuuC COIuc
She did not look day over twenty.
Her hair was the same soft tint of
brown that it had always been: her
cheek had a firmness of contour and q
delicate blush upon it that might have
belonged to girl of seventeen; the
beauty which had made her conspicu-
Gus as q debutante gave no signs Of APP
preaching deterioration, but what did
all this amount to when everybody
knew she was twenty-eigbt. and at
tested with exasperating indelicacy that
she was g remarkably well preserved.
She could not possibly put it off much
longer. and yet she felt certain shrink
ing from her destiny-as the hand of q
suicide might rccoil from its instrument
las she began to review mentally the
opportunities remaining to her.
Money is no object. she exclaimed
at last. al want freedom. and the only
condition compatible with perfect free.