The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-07-29
An Old Maids
Secret.

N-w TITLE Miss Sophie was an
sS#4 old maid. which means
WHi I liUlL that she had passed thir-
IllM . IHH ty-fire without either Il
SS8S4 serious courtship, an offer
Of marriage or the least indication that
she would ever experience either. Once.
indeed, when she Was quite child
only twenty -four-there had been q
young man. very pious. well-Hin-
hered young clergyman. who-but that
seemed like dream to Miss Sophie now.
She might have doubted whether he
ever lived if he had not given her that
little old Book of Common Prayer and
the faded daguerreotypc Of himself in
that little folding case in the corner OF
the 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 low a fat bishop as we'll as
the father of a large family.
y For four years now Miss Sophie had
been ''mothering' the two children of
her dcud sister. Until Matte grew
old enough and strong enough to go to
work Aunt Sophie had been hard put
to it to make ends meet i'll the little
household. She had sewed and mend
ed, MIXED her COW, tended her own
chickens, cooked, secured. and saved
to keep Matte and tho boy, Harry.
Heccntly at school. She had even
found time to do sonic plain sewing
for the neighbors, and il was agreed on
all sides that Aunt Sophie hadn't "a
lazy bone in her body" AIattie's
wages as. machine girl" in the but
ton factory helped wonderfully in this
small household, but it made the old
maids heart bleed to see her set off
for the shop every morning. and poor
Harry, who was ten, looked very dis
consolate lettering away to school
without his sister.
4 Mr.. Kingsland, the button manufac-
furer, had been very kind to Miss So
phie and to Matte. In fact, he had
tmade q place. for the child. and had
gone out of his way TO advance her
in the works. with a corresponding i'll
crease of pay. But he was practical
business man for al! that. and the
hours were long, the work hard and
the wages not over much. 1t little
towns like Belleville everybody knows
Everybody, and Mr.. Kingsland had spe-
Scial reasons for knowing Aunt Sophie.
Her brother had worked in the fac
tory, and it seemed quito fair and nat
hral that he should be kind to the
orphans. But this kind of interest
hardly explained his first visit to the
old maids house. nor the repeated. at
tentions which he showed her. He was
forever asking her advice about the
Itreatment of the girls at work in his
factory, and Sunday seldom passed
without visit, long or short, from
Mr. Kingsland.
I He was pleased to take tea with
them once Or twice. and he showed
such IN interest in her children"
such fatherly regard for Matte, such
an amused friendship for little Harry.
such frank and generous desire to be
kind to everyone, that little Miss So
:phie came to regard him as something
less than wealthy patron, something
moro than mere acquaintance. There
was no nonsense about him, and his
presence in the house, though cause
of restraint at first for both Matte and
.her brother. came to seem SO natural
that the cheerful little houSekeeper al
ways 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 COM
ing.
So3i>timcs when the childlsn were
not present he would sit III the veranda
with Miss Sophie and tell her old stor-
les of his past lifc-plain. unvarnished
tales OF his struggles for an education
and Hving-an unromantic story full
of the grim realities OF i poor boys
hopes and disappointment. He had
never married. He had been Too busy
with the harsher affairs Of life.
II don't know that anyone would
lha &c me-" he would laugh. I'm sixty
years old, a plain old bear: now, don't
you think so, Miss Sophle:'
And she would reply with some trite
old sophistry. as Handsome is as
handsome does or 'Ncycr TOO late to
mend.' But when hc was gone, n
lonesome giant trudgtn@ away to his
furnished room in the hotel. she would
sit alone for hours after the children
had gene to he'd and wonder if his
visits, il his confidential manner and
talk, if his extraordinary interest in
Iher ard The il!ir ones "meant any
thing And if 50?
J. "SurpOsa.' Sic wouiG sny. looking
into her little mirror at her own round.
EchccTful, handsome face suppose he
should? What: Ask You to marry
him. Wha! would You say
And 81" wn''u Sniile y little lOa!:-
fully, as she shook hcr head, and. put
ting out thc light. lay down 10 think ii