The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-01-03
A CONSPICUOUS OPPORTUNITY.
"Whv don't / get married ?"


round and looked at her brother-in- law
as If for q reply.
DIR. Ainslee looked up from his paper
with an expression that evinced GER
tain enjoyment of the chase, rather
than a sympathy with the pursued, and
answered:
"Yes, there is one means of escape. J"
"And that is TO get married, / sup
pose?"
Exactly"
Miss Winthrop was not soothed by
the suggestion. She regarded 1T as an
unWholesome state of civilization 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 inbecile query. Among her friends
she was spoken of as eccentric, wom-
an who unfortunately had ideas, and,
while possessing inestimable advan-
tages, had signally failed to make any
use of them. This failure 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
spinsterhood upon family that within
the memory Of man had married its
daughters young and well, and, for any
thing the world knew to the contrary,
happily. She was % to-day.
This was the view taken of the situa-
ton 10y 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 of various members
of her family, past and present, 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 con-
sequences of marriage when she had
the kenefit OF other peoples eX
perience Us warning was something
Miss Winthrop had never understood
and did not seek TO explain. She had
all woman's horror of being called an
odd maid, though the immunities of
spinsterhood were at times alluring. 1t
had never been her deliberate intention
to join the ranks of the belated sister
hood. OF course she intended to marry
ut some time, but why be in haste :?
Did not every married woman of her
acquaintance admit that courtship was
the most delightful part of all, and that
anticipations of post-nuptial felicity
We're apt to resolve themselves into an
unsatisfactory 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 enjoy again the delightful
experience of courtship, when by re-
iectingshim she could 60 on repeating it
indefinitely with fresh subjects and
under an infinite variety of conditions.
She that loves and runs away,
VIII live to love another day
was Miss Winthrops motto that mar
riage was, like death, thing to be
deferred as long as possible, and ac-
cepted finally as a heroic remedy for
something worse was her philosophy.
Being rs to-day she felt that the time
had come for heroic measures. She
did not look day over 20. Her hair
was the same soft tint of brown that
it had always been; her cheek had a
firmness of contour and a delicate
blush upon it that might have belonged
10 girl of II; the beauty which had
made her conspicuous as a debutante
gave no signs of approaching deteriora-
ton. but what did oil this amount to
when everybody knew she was %, and
attested with exasperating indelicacy
that she was remarkably well pre-
served"
She could not possibly put it off
much longer, and yet she felt certain
shrinking from her destiny - as the
hand of suicide might recoil from its
instrument as she began to review
mentally the opportunities remaining
to her.
Money is no object" she exclaimed
at last. IL want freedom, and the only
condition compatible with perfect free
dom is widowhood. Unfortunately we
can't he born widows, and the odds
against being left widow without in
cumbrance are infinity TO one. If there
was only some way of making n woman
a widow by an act of Congress or de-
cree of court It's shocking TO think
OF the risks woman must run to attain
that seventh heaven Of Independence.
/ believe l Will advertise for con-
sumptive, and agree to nurse him ten
derly through the remnant of his exist
ence if he will obligate himself to die
within given time"
Mrs. Ainslee, her sister, and her SEN
ior by two years, turned toward her the
face of shocked and outraged wife
hood.
But Mrs. Ainslee, to the indiscretion
of marrying young, had added the folly
of spelling her husband, and Miss Win
throp expected this silent protest from
her.
II you want something of that sort,
said the Doctor, laying aside his paper,
cit il not worth while to advertise. l
have patient on hand that will exactly
fill the bill.
Tell me about him." she said. with
sudden enthusiasm.
"He is not consumptive, continued
the Doctor. ut is even more hope
less case than that. He may die az any
moment; he can't possibly live longer
than few months, and is "A sorely in
need of competent nursing as any poor
devil ever saw. lie has no friends