The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-03-28
True Story of an Old Maid.

True Story of an Old Maid.
At the previous meeting of the Wo-
mans Aid and Charity society, one of
the speakers, a young woman newly
married, had made some jeering and
! 1lippant remarks about old maids. Mrs.
Eustace, a venerable lady, had given
notice that she intended to take the
matter up at the next meeting.
And a full meeting it was. Mrs.
Eustace had a reputation. At the prop
er moment she arose, and proceeded
without Introduction of any kind to
read the following from a manuscript:
1t was cold, dismal chilly, windy
day in early November. The rain was
beating Savagely- against the panes of
Miss Gregory's sitting room. Miss
Gregory herself, judging by her looks,
had taken the complexion of the day
aga of the month. Her eyes were wet
With tears, and her poor, pinched fea-
lures were quivering. She had just re-
turned to her room.x Her umbrella,
opened by the fireplace to dry, her rub
bers laid in the corner, her draggled
skirts and her high collar bore testi-
mony to the fact that she had faced
the rain and the wind. She had left
early in the morning, bent on works
of kindness and of love, and she had
met with GOODNESS, Indifference and reE
buff. She could have borne with the
Sights of strangers, she could have
endured even the indifferences of ac-
quaintances. but she had not been pre-
pared for the deep unkindness of life
long friend. Another friend gone! In
her mind she was silent, in an unseen
cemetery. There were many white
headstones there, some erected-ah, mel
twenty-five years ago-all bearing the
sad legend:
Sacred to the Memory
OF a Former Friend
"She was looking at then? now, that
long line of tombstones. She counted,
she named, one by one, the sleepers
beneath
Oh death in life, the days that
are no more
And here was a new grave, a new
tombstone. a new friendship buried.
Then, leaving this cemetery of the
mind, her thoughts by natural asso-
citation, went forth to st. Josephs
graveyard. Her mother lay there, and
her father. Beside them a dear sister
and lovely brother, a mere boy, whose
glad smile and jolly laugh still haunted
her. There, too, were dear friends who
had died-thank God-with friendship
unbroken.
From the dead to the living! Alas,
could she be the last leaf of the tree?
Were there none left upon whom she
could lean? Her life had been a life of
love. She had reached the downward
slope, and the dear ones were all on
the side she had passed. The world,
at that moment, was a loveless world,
a world without sun, world with
out cheer, world vocal with signs,
a world dark, gloomy, November.
oh, my God, my God, why am
here? Why do you not call me to your
self?' she cried. sinking upon her
knees.
The day was dark, the future dark
Lord, for tomorrow and its needs,
1 do not pray;
Give me but thy love and grace
Just for today.
Just for today All! even the
thought of that days few remaining
hours was agonizing. In her mind was
the sound of clods of earth falling up
on a coffin. That coffin enclosed hopes,
smiles, loves and happy laughter In
it was buried her youth. And today
what was she, the once beautiful, win
ming girl? An old maid! Yes, an old
maid She had begun her round of
duties that morning by attending mass
and had heard a missioner, apropos of
nothing, announce that while there was
such thing as q vocation to the mar |
ried state a vocation OF religion, there !
was no such thing as a vocation to be
an old maid. She flushed deeply as she |
more deeply still when she /
perceived that the eyes of several ac-
quaintanceS were turned toward her. !
Was the missioner right?
ttTt would seem Hero she. |
high and dry, beyond middle life. with |
loves and dead hopes in the |
wake of her years, and nothing to |
look for in the years to come. And yet |
it had been the aim of her life to help /
others. She had carried entire families
on her hands, and-at the present mo-
could recall those only who
had revisited her goodness with blank
ingratitude. There had been a time,
the world was young then and the
woods greenwich she felt and en-
joyed a sense of power. She could
work all day with never a touch of
WEAKNESS, and rise on the morrow
to fresh labor. Then she was in re-
quest. Then she could succeed where
others failed. She had been very
popular.
but all that had passed away. 9th
ers had taken her place. Her sprightli-
ness was gone, anu people, WITHOUT
knowing it, told her, in a thousand lit
tie ways, that she was undressing
"As she knelt at her pri-dieu, the
tears coursed down her thin cheeks.
indeed her heart was very sore and
bruised.
can angel entered the room-an angel
ali beautiful because he had seen God
and knew him Miss Gregory was not
frightened She felt mat sunshine was
at hand.
MY child said the angel. be of
good heart. You have served. God in
ioy. fear not to serve him in sorrow.
Fear not to give him the dark days of
your declining life. Just now you were
looking into the past. You saw the