Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-07
THE WOMAN OF THlRTY-FIvE.

From London Society.

From London Society.
Balzac has laid down the theory that woman
of thirty is at her most fascinating and danger
GUS age-dangerous. that is to say. to the hearts
of men. Perhaps no writer understood his
own countrywomen better than Balzac, and
perhaps no writer has contributed to social
philosophy SO many cynical reflections OH the
sex in general. But Balzacs axioms would ap-
ply, as rule, to certain type of woman, type
less common, it is to be hoped, in England
than in France. The spinster naturally would
not enter into his calculations, and even in this
country the unmarried girl who admits to having
passed seven-and- twenty must be exceptionally
circumstanced if she can boast of a largo train
of adorers. The Dlushing debutante may have
things pretty well her own way and is quite
capable of seriously captivating the blase man
of the world who frequently finds an agreeable
pquancy in bread and butter, milk and rose
buds. She may indeed prove more enduring
delight to such "a man than the frisky married
women with whom the game of firta-
ton has hitherto been played with in
tense satisfaction. But the old-young girl
is neither spring lamb nor Welsh mutton,
and not all the furnishing possible will disguise
her anomalous flavor or give her the charm of
the daisies and the meadows. She has lost the
freshness and the ingenious frankness, and she
has not gained the experience and fnesse
which would render her attractiv to man; ard
unless she be wei endowed in the matter of
rank or worldly goods, and matrimony
be solemnly contemplated however agreeable
an acquisition she may be to society, she does
not find marked favor III the sight of the aver
age 'masher."
There is class Of woman the woman who
has entered the thirties, upon whose drama the
curtain is not likely to fall for many year
yet. In all womanly honesty, it may be, she
reves in the part of heroine and in the dis
nDlfatInng mol no ia tha
cause. She will go on indefatigably playing
her part and enjoying it, while the lights grow
dim and the audience drops off and the je,tne
premier becomes wooden and Indifferent This
kind of a woman must, as Lander puts it,
warn both hands at the fire of life." Her
keenly strung temperament, alert sensibility and
magnetic power of attraction make her the
center of perfect vortex OF emotions. She
takes intense pleasure in the storm and tumult
of feeling that gathers round her. 1t gives a
zest to existence which without it she would
find insupportably tame. She does not mean
to be cruel; she is not unprincipled. In many
cases she herself suffers almost as much as her
victims. But excitement, even that of suffer-
ing. is necessity of her being and she takes
comfort in the thought that she, too, can ex-
claim, like Egmont, when the end comes II
cease to live. but have lived" And to this
woman thirty-ive is the beginning OF the end
To the ordinary woman OF poetic tendencies,
but no definite inclination toward the dramatic
fail to bring with it feeling of melancholy and
dissatisfaction. 1t is an uncomfortable point
OF transition when the mind cannot dwell with
any complacency upon past, present or future.
The illusions have gone and the solid realities
have not yet quite taken their place. In dress,
demeanor, and mental outlook q gradual and
subtle readjustment has to be considered. 1t
is felt necessary to pract ice a certain sedate-
ness and dignity of bearing which must not,
however, be overdone, so as to appear affecta-
ton. Attentions which only the other day
might have been attributed to the influence of
personal beauty and fascination are today
open at least to the suspicion of interested mo-
tives. Partners at balls are less persistent
and fewer in number. The delicate aroma of
flattery, once breathed as a matter of course,
has become sensibly fainter. Amusement
seems to drag, and the business of
pleasure generally inspires a feeling of
languor and depression. The woman
OF thirty-five is not yet hidden
to step out of the arena and range herself
among the spectators, but nature has disa-
greeable way of reminding her that the hour
is approaching. 1t is as though the first chill
| breath of autumn which heralds the Indian
summer were making itself <elt. She will be
! fortunate il her autumn of Beauty brings with
it the ripe graces the tender associations and
poetic suggestions which give to the season OF
decay its mellow charm.