Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-07-07
A SPINSTER'S NOOING.
i.

81 I 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 a
matron without her membranes, and
may do pretty much as she chooses
in a 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 impos-
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-pe Iple 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-tive years sat lightly upon her
and only showed a drift of gray in
her abundant dark locks, and in giving
TO ewes and mouth that expression of
sympathy and comprehension that Is
the final charm to a woman's face.
For the rest. she had certain mature
Iuxuriance of beauty that made young
er women. look as pale and colorless
as spring daisy beside a gorgeous
fall chrysanthemum.
She had been one Of the women 10
whom the Towering time of life came
back. She had had starved youth,
without joy, without beauty, or any
thing that belonged TO her years, pass
cd in slayish 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.
IT always seemed to Miss Ashton
that she was born again, with the
change of fortune, into a new person
alitv and a new world. She turned
her hack on the old life with all its
hard and grinding ways, and with 4
frank paganism gave herself up to en-
loving the hour. Rich foods and lux
ur,ant living did for her body what
trnvel and society did for her mind.
and from having been angular. unbeau-
tiful. she suddenly bloomed into
grande dsme-daring, original, a little
eccentric. perhaps, but with fascin-
alton none denied.
To enjoy q 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
n generous hand to those about her.
She adored cleveTness, and so she sur
rounded herself only with those who
amused and entertained her, and no
social prestige was great enough 10
omen her doors 10 bore.
II was in this way she came 10 know
David Horton. He did not belong TO
the great world Of fashion. He was
merely a poor inventor, shabby as 10
clothes. but with great thoughts strug-
Cling for expression in his great brain.
Shy as schoolgirl. he was, too, ana
il 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-
tons, and diSappointments, while his
eyes grew tender, and his voice took
on that cadence that man uses when
he talks to the woman he loves and
trusts.
Part OF Miss Ashton's power had
always been that she understood other
pecple-and herself. She knew that
for the first time in her life love had
come TO her. in all its beauty and
glory. She knew equally IS wei. with
woman's intuition, that David Hor-
ton loved her but she was absolutely
certain ne would never tell her OF 1t,
or ask her TO be his wife. She had
SO much. He hal so little. and his
pride would not let him go empty
handed as a beggar to the woman &c