The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1905-03-04
The Man and
the Hour
BY KEITH GORDON

was looking the future sQuarely In Ii
eye. Hitherto she had been content I
nioble at life, munching away conten
ediy enough, satisfied with the Joy q
the moment And she might have gon
. on so for an indefinite time had II no
been for the occurrence OF the Sd q
June.
4 New Years day Is significant onl,
because then, by common consen,
time moves up number. This rar.ic
ular June made an indelible impres
sion on Elinor's mind because on tha
oay she began to be thirty .two-begar
at the very beginning, Of course, bu
still she began.
i shall say Pm thirty-one all thi,
year anyway" she announced defiant
" TO that other self that receives oul
dearest condolences. ITS such bad
form to say you're thirty one years and
TWO months old, or whatever II may
happen to be. And IL have to write /,
I'LL make 1t thirty -one in round mum,
oers- not even thirty.one plus" All OF
which, as the reader can see, was very
Inscriptions.
However as she found. by far the
worst thing about beginning to be thir,
ty-two was the fact that you couldn't
forget IT, The harder you tried the bet
ter you remembered II.
Well what If amg"
This was the remark that our heroine
slung into space when, after a week of
torment, she sat down with her chin
resting on her hands to have the thing
out. What IL l am? So are plenty OF
other gir-women, l mean. Alice is
thirty. Mary thirty-one, Mabel twenty.
eight"
She paused In her enumera ton. struck
by the thought that all these friends
were married. Matrimony was a sub
ject to which she had given the mini
mum OF thought She supposed shed
come TO It some time, but she was IN
no hurry TO enter that narrow pasture
so long as there was pleasant browsing
to be had outside.
When she had thought of II at all II
had seemed to mean chiefly tiresone
round Of housekeeping that resulted in
three perpendicular lines Just over the
nose, memorandum of worry that she
secretly determined to avoid as long as
possible. But now that she was be
ginning to be thirty-two the thing was
different.
Could it be, she asked herself, that
she had made mistake after all and
that those three incisive lines were as
much OF an honor as an officers barsi
Could it be that there was a point
when one began to be thirty -two-for
instance, when becomingness demand.
ed that one should lay aside Miss
just as 1t required that one should
stop wearing pink?
She faced her plight with a stiff I'D.
per lip, realizing that she had no one
but herself to blame. There had been
a number Of men-the mischlevous dim.
pie at the corner Of her mouth danced
into sight for a second at the thought
of how many--who had done their best
to stop her In what she now recognized
for the first time her mad career. She
had declined their offers kindly. but
with certain royal carelessness that
recked not Of possible dark hours to
come. When did any woman born to
the belief in the divine right OF queens ,
ever foresee dethronement?
She had inadvertently 'lived over" ,
as she had once heard it quantity
phrased. There was no doubt about It, ,
she was an old maid! She repeated it !
aloud in all its brutal truth, scornlng ,
such euphemisms as "spinster" and
bachelor woman"
You're an old maid-just plain old 9
naid!" she said audibly. But it sound. ,
ID like joke-like one of those things
90 bad TO be true. She would proba.
by wake up after bit to find that she
lad been married since her eighteenth
'ear and had son ready to enter col a
ege and daughter about to make her ?
lebut.
No such happy awakening came, :,
owever, and with desperate philoso. "
hy she decided that since she was =
n old maid she would enter into the u
ole for all 1t was worth At least :,
he would avoid the error OF being u
n
Little by little her plainest gowns ~
'ere brought into requisition. Certain :, =
tile graces and frivollties Of the toilet -
ere one by one abandoned. She timid. },
? asked Alice, her closest friend, to VI
each the children to call her "auntie," "
thing which she had hitherto forbid -,
en- under the penalty of a sudden :,
cath to the cherub that should first 81
e guilty OF it, ID
What is the matter with your gasp.
] Alice, with a stare Of amazement -
And what have you been doing with ="
our hair, and why are you wearing
lat ugly old dress, with all the hand. 70 :,
ome things that you haveT III
I'm just wearing the things suit.
bic to my age before the dear friends
ave a chance to point them out to
le," was the answer, and that night III
er friend confded to her husband, I'll
nth thoughtful regret, that Elinor was "a
ecoming regular old maid. re-