The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1903-12-11
An Old Maids Secret.

Little Miss Sophie was all old maid
which means that she had passed thirty.
five without either a serious courtship
an offer ofmarriage or the least indication
that she would ever experience either
Once, indeed, when she was quite child
only twenty four-there had been a
young man, Il very pious, well-Inannered
young clergyman, who-but that seemed
like dream to Miss Sophie now. She
might have doubted whether he ever
lived il he had not given her that little
old Book of Common Prayer and the
faded daguerrcotypc of himself in that
little folding case i'll the corner of TIE
"what not He had been her one
possibility, remote always, but now
quite out of the question since he had
married his cousin to please his father,
and was now a fat bishop us well as the
father of a large family.
For four years now Miss Sophie had
been "inothcrinS" the two children OF
her dead sister. Until Matte grew old
enough and strong enough to go to VIC.
Aunt Sophie had been hard put to it to
make ends meet in the little household.
She had scwcd and mendcd, MIXED her
COW, tended her own chickens, cooked,
secured, and saved to keep Matte and
the boy, Harry, decently at school. She
had even found time to do some plain
sewing for the neiShbors, ard it was
agreed on all sides that Aunt Sophie
hadn't "a lazy bone in her body" Matte $
wages as machine girl in the button
factory helped wonderfully in this small
household, but il made the old maid S
heart bleed to see her SIT off for the shop
every morning, and poor Harry, who
was ten, looked very disconsolate loiter-
ing away to school without his sister.
Mr.. kingsland, the button manufact-
urer, had been very kind to Miss Sophie
and to Matte. In fact he had made a
place" for the child, and had gone out of
his way to advance her in the works,
with Il corresponding increase of pay.
But lie was practical business man for
all that, and the hours were long, the
work hard and the wages not over much.
In little towns like Bclleville, everybody
knows everybody, and Mr.. kingsland
had special reasons for knowing Aunt
Sophie. Her brother had worked in the
factory, and it seemed quite fair and
natural that he should be kind to the
orphans. But this kind of interest hard
~ explained his first visit to the old maid $
house. nor the repeated attentions which
he showed her. He was forever asking
her advice about the treatment of the
girls at work in his factory, and Sunday
seldom passed without visit, long or
short, from Mr. kingsland.
He was pleased to take tea with them
once or twice. and lie showed such an in
terest in her children" such fatherly
regard for Matte, such an amused friend
ship for little Harry, such frank and
generous desire to be kind to everyone,
that little Miss Sophie came to regard
him as something less than a wealthy
patron, something more than mere ac-
quaintancc. There was no nonsense
about him, and his presence in the house,
though Il cause of restraint at first for
both Matte and her brother, came to
seem so natural that the cheerful little
houselesper always laid his plate for
Sunday supper, and the girl and her
brother always dressed in their finest and
smiled their sweetest when they knew he
was coming
Sometimes when the children were not
present he would sit in the veranda with
Miss Sophie and tell her old stories ofhis
past lite-plain, unvarnished tales of his
struggles for an education and living
an unromantic story full Of the grim real
tiles of a poor boys hopes and disap-
pointments. He had never married. He
had been too busy with the harsher
affairs of life.
II don't know that anyone would have
me" he would laugh. I'm sixty years
old, plain old bear; now, don't you
think SO. Miss Sophie:"
And she would reply with some trite
old sophistry, as Handsome is as hand
some does" or Never too late to mend"
But when he was gone, a lonesome giant
trudging away to his furnished room in
the hotel, she would sit alone for hours
after the children had gone to bed and
wonder if his visits, if his confidential
manner and talk, if his extraordinary in
terest in her and the little ones meant
anything" And it so?
suppose she would say, looking into
her little mirror at her own round,
cheerful, handsome face, suppose he
should: What: Ask you to marry him.
What would you say"
And she would smile Il little doubtfullv,
as she shook her head, and, putting out
the light, lay down to think it all over
There was nothing particularly romantic
about Miss Sophie. She was dcmurc,
modest little soul, but, being a woman,
she could not avoid pondcrng such Il
announcement for his persistent friend
ship of man whom everybody admired
and respected. 1t WAS iii such terms that
she thought of him. He was no hero in
her eyes, for the little old maid didn't
go in for heroes. She fancicd that he
would make gentle, considerable safe
husband for any woman, and
lies like father to the children al
ready" she caught herself saving one
night. And after that she thought of