The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1905-02-08
The Man and
the Hour
BY KEITH GORDON
Copyright, 1904, by Frances Wilson

was looking the future squarely In the
oye Hitherto she had been content to
nlbble ut life. munehing away content.
fdly enough. satisfied with the Joy of
the moment. And she might have gone
on SO for an indefinite time had 1t not
been for the occurrence of the Sd of
June.
New Years day Is significant only
because then, by common consent.
time moves up a number. This partlc-
ular June 3 made an indelible impress
sion on Elinor's mind because ON that
day she began TO be thirty -two-began
at the very beginning. of course but
still she began
Il shall say I'm thirty-one all this
year anyway" she announced defiant
ly to that other self that receives our
dearest condolences. It's such bad
form to say you're thirty-one years and
two months old. or whatever IL may
happen to be. And If have to write 1t
I'll make IT thirty-one in round num-
bers-not even thirty-o one plus" All of
which, ms the reader can see. was very
INSCRIPTIONS
However, as she found, by far the
worst thing about beginning TO be thlr-
ty-two was the fact that you couldn't
forget ii. The harder you tried the bet
ter you remembered 1t.
We'll, what II ann"
This WAS the remark that our heroine
slung into space when, after week of
torment, she sat down with her chin
resting on her hands to have the thing
out. What If | am? SO are plenty of
other gir-wopen. mean. Alice IS
thirty. Mary thirty one, Mabel twenty
eight"
She paused In her enumeration. struck
by the thought that all these friends
We're married Matrimony was sub
Ject TO which she had given the mini
mum of thought. She supposed she'd
come to it some time. but she was In
no hurry to enter that narrow pasture
so long MS there was pleasant browsing
to be had outside.
When she had thought of ii at all Ii
haa seemed to mean chiefly tiresome
r,1liii 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 bars?
Could ii be that there was a point
when one began to be thirty -two-for
instance. when becomlngness demand
ed that one should lay aside Miss"
just ms it required that one should
stop wearing pink
She faced her plight with a stiff up
per lip, realizing that she had no one
but herself to blame. There had been
q number OF men-the mischievous dim
pie at the corner Of her mouth danced
into sight for n 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 a certain royal carelessness that
rocked not of possible dark hours to
come. When did any woman born to
the belief in the divine right of queens
ever foresee dethronementl
She had inadvertently "lived over"
as she had once heard 1t quantity
phrased There was no doubt about II,
she was an old maid! She repeated 1t
aloud in all its brutal truth, scorning
such euphemisms as "spinster' and
bachelor woman"
you're an old mald-just plain old
maidr' she said audibly. But 1t sound
ed like joke-like one of those things
too bad to be true. She would proba-
bly, wake up after bit to find that she
had been married since her eighteenth
year and had a son ready to enter col
lege and a daughter about to make her
debut.
No such happy awakening came,
however, and with desperate philoso-
ply she decided that since she was
an old maid she would enter into the
role for all it was worth. At least
she would avoid the error of being
kittenish.
Little by little her plainest gowns
were brought into requlsition. Certain
little graces and frivolitles OF the toilet
were one by one abandoned. She tlmid
ly asked Alice, her closest friend, to
teach the children to call her "auntie."
q thing which she had hitherto forbid
den under the penalty Of a sudden
death to the cheIub that should first
be guilty of It,
What is the matter with youf' gasp
ed Alice, with stare of Amusement |
And what have you been doing with
your hair. and why are you wearing
that ugly old dress, with all the hand
some things that you haveY
I'm just wearing the things suit |
able TO my age before the dear friends |
have chance to point them ont to +
me-" was the answer, and that night |
her friend confided TO her husband, |
with thoughtful regret, that Elinor was !
becoming regular old maid
Another Of her friends and comrades. |
Max Anderson, also noticed the subtle |
change. Theirs had been sort of /
brother and sister friendship of long
standing For years he had scolded I
and criticised and bullied her The
one thing that he hadn't done was to /
make love, and Elinor had long since
given up trying to make him.
Haven't you ever been In love, !
Max" she had asked him once, with
genuine curiosity in the gray eyes that /
had been more than one mans un.
doing. A dull flush came up into his
face, and he looked at her strangely.
YES" he answered shortly, 81 have"
beautiful night, isn't it," he went
on after a moment, and there was a
touch of mockery in his voice that
made the questioner vince. After that
she asked him no more.
whats up?" he demanded, survey
ing her cynically as she came down
to receive him one evening, with re-
nunciation speaking from every line