Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-07-03
4 SPINSTER'S WOO|NG.


st is not to be denied that rich old
maid, who has accepted her age and
her spinsterhood, has about the best
of things as they go in life. She has,
at once, all the financial independence
of a man, and the privileges Of
matron without her membranes, and
may do pretty much as she chooses
in necessarily limited state Of society.
Miss Ashton belonged to this en-
viable class, and was wont to make the
most of her opportunities. Her sister
she abused them, but when they lifted
an eyebrow over some quite 1mpos-
sible person or fad she had taken up,
she merely shrugged her shoulders.
"At my age, my DEAR" she would
say, "a woman may know anybody
and hear all there is to tell" which
was one of the reasons, perhaps, that
at her house you always found the
most interesting people-people whom
you might never meet elsewhere, in
society, but who were never banal or
tiresome.
In truth, Miss Ashton's insistence on
her age was a trife premature. Her
forty-five years sat lightly upon her
and only showed q drift Of gray in
her abundant dark locks, and in giving
to eyes and mouth that expression of
sympathy and comprehension that is
the final charm to woman's face.
For the rest, she had certain mature
luxuriance of beauty that made young
er women look as pale and colorless
as a spring daisy beside gorgeous
fall chrysanthemum.
She had been one Of the women to
whom the Towering time of life came
back. She had had a starved youth,
without joy, without beauty, or any
thing that belonged to her years, pass
ed in slavish attendance on an old
uncle Then one day when she had
already grown into mature woman
the old man died, and she found her
self not only free, but rich beyond her
widest dreams.
1t always seemed to Miss Ashton
that she was born again, with the
change of fortune, into a new person
ality, and a new world. She turned
her back on the old life with all its
hard and grinding ways, and with a
frank paganism gave herself up to en-
loving the hour. Rich foods and lux
uriant living did for her body what
travel and society did for her mind,
and from having been angular, unbeau-
tiful, she suddenly bloomed into
grande dame-daring, original, little
eccentric, perhaps, but with a fascin-
alton none denied.
To enjoy a feast to the fullest, one
must have starved. Certainly Miss
Ashton drained her cup Of pleasure
to the very bottom.
She had had enough of shadow, and
would have nothing more but sunshine.
She hated poverty, and she gave with
a generous hand to those about her.
She adored cleverness, and 80 she sur
rounded herself only with those who
amused and entertained her, and no
social prestige was great enough to
open her doors to a bore.
1t was in this way she came to know
David Horton. He did not belong to
the great world of fashion. He was
merely a poor inventor shabby as to
clothes, but with great thoughts strug
CLING for expression in his great brain.
Shy as a schoolgirl, he was, too, and
it took all of Miss Ashton's tact to
draw him into her charmed circle.
Once there, however, and the barriers
broken down by her sympathy, the
man showed her his whole soul. He
fell into the way of dropping In, in the
quiet dusk, at the hour when she was
oftenest alone, and, sitting before the
big fire in the library, he would tell her
of his dreams, his hopes, and aspira-
tions, and disappointments, while his
eyes grew tender, and his voice took