The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02
He K I HIR TIE TIL
BIR 7 II D A I
By F. FOX

| mot on your iife-if you will pardon the
expression" answer the serious-minded
young woman. "Lizzy's last. Let Caroline
proceed" and she indicated a bright little
brunette on the left of the hostess. The
young lady arose in obvious trepidation.
Now girls" she said, that's mean. You
know can't speak extern"
"Oh, yes. you cam" cried the others, re-
provingIy. "All you've got to do is to just
| get hold of the end and pull
The speaker paused. confused. IF you
] girls will stop jollying me, I'll try. You
want to know how this all-important birth
day affected me? 1 passed it on the second
of last month, and to be quite frank about
1t 1 don't remember anything in particular
about 1t. The reason may have been that
Agnes's baby had the whooping cough, and
kept her mother. the nurse and me on a
hot griddle the previous night in her ef-
| forts to choke her little life out. Conse-
quently, on this all-important day L was
verging on nervous prostration. At least.
1 did not recall the days significance till
evening, when i was undressing. 1 re-
member did take I'D my mirror and ex-
anime the course of the crows closely, but
was TeleVeu 10 discover no iesItliiisile
| tracks
Certainly not. Absurd" came from the
| listeners.
''Sit down. Caroline" commanded the
serious-minded young woman, before you
harrow US up by getting on the subject Of
!, gray hairs. Whom shall We have next?"
| You, Clara. DEAR" answered the Beauty.
and she was instantly reinforced by the
rest
| The sensible-minded young woman
blushed at the trap she had walked into,
but she spoke up promptly:
! Certainly, my dears. It's poor doctor
that will not take his own medicine. Per-
| haps the birthday did not mean as much
| TO me as it did to some of you girls.
am plain-oh. yes / ami Thank you just
the same. My mirror has always been
| quite brutal about it.
| Il am an old maid. Quite as distinctly an
old maid as was ten years ago. Not one
of the made, or left-overs--but the born.
/ have never had what Bridget calls gen.
tleman company No man would ever look
at me twice. unless my hat was on crooked
or there was a smudge on my nose. / am a
home body, and my masculine acquaintance
| Is limited to my three brothers and one
male cousin, and birthdays are not in
| clined to make any difference to brothers
| and cousins.
| "A plain person, il you have ever had
| any chance to notice, is always plainest
| in the morning. And / notice as / do my
| hair and get the benefit of the reflection
| from the marble top of my washstand
| that my face is beginning to settle into
Its next stage. 1t is mapped out, so to
| speak. I am, ladies-I own i'll am no
| longer young. Next.''
The hostess nudged the girl on the other
| side of her. Get up. Willy she said,
land give us your experience
| At the command a rather delicate young
| woman, with large, rapt blue eyes, arose.
81 cannot say, as Caroline did,, she be-
| gan, that the birthday came and passed
me by without sharp recognition on my
part 1t is what our hostess would call an
awful jolt to girlhood.' But as it was syn
onymous with my betrothal-'
| Here a whirlwind OF excitement swept
down the table. WHAT cried the Beauty.
announced after seven years? How did
it happen? What gown did you have on,
WiIly?'
| The chaff passing back and forth caused
a deeper wave Of red to suffuse the cheeks
| of the standing girl than the rudy candle
| shades had brought. Her engagement to
/ Bert Willibert had been momentarily ex-
| pected for more years than she cared to
| remember. In fact, so long that its an
/ nouncement had become actually awkward.
She was sorry 1t had slipped unwittingly
| off her tongue. for in the effervescent at
mosphere OF the present gathering she knew
nothing was sacred, not even the Kings x
on Loves sleeve Chan was the atmosphere
| of the moment.
willy" said Agnes Willibert, 'Im going
| straight home and pat Bert on the back
and tell him what a good little boy 1t Is.
4 To be frank with you, Willy, had given up
all hopes of having you for sister. Why,
honest. told Bert ages ago that I would
go and pop the question myself If he
couldn't find the courage"
| She was drowned out in buzz of, 1T
| must have been the gown, Willy" "Or the
arrangement of the lights" "Or, hold!"
cried the Beauty; Girls, 1 have it, 1t was
the birthday Instantly shouts went up:
| 1.-The birthday" ''Of course it vast THE
birthday did it, 1t got on his conscience"
Here the serious minded young woman
arose wrathfully. Girls she cried. you
shap't! Leave Willy alone. Isn't it pun
ishment enough unwittingly to have made
the announcement first in such an assembly
OF young idiots?"
Here she was interrupted by cries of
Thanks for the young and "Gener-
ously include yourself among the idiots, my
dear" The serious-minded young woman
| went on hurriedly, I'VE will herewith ex-
cuse Willy and let Fluff, our own Beauty.
take up the thread" and she sat down van
pushed.
At her bidding the goIden-hsired girl arose
| with soft swish of chiffon and silk the
soft light bringing her beautiful hazel eyes
out startlingly from the clear. peachy oval
of her face. She tapped on the top of her
wine glass, more obviously to secure the
attention they always gave her.
Ladies and g. ladies. 1t ends there.
doesn't it? 1 am Twenty-Five! 1 defy any
| of you to prove it otherwise by the family
Bible because that book is at the bottom of
a barrel in the attic. I am twenty-five. /