The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-02-23
The Man and
the Hour
By KEITH GORDON

4AApbAS a. AASS AAro1~AS4A6 oTo6 S01ASSAs-
edly enough, satisfied with the Joy Of
the moment. And she might have gone
on 80 for an indefinite time had It not
been for the occurrence Of the Sd Of
June.
New Years day is significant only
because then, by common consent
time moves up q number. This partic-
ular June 3 made an indelible impress
sion on Elinors mind because on that
day she began to be thirty-two-began
at the very beginning, Of course but
still she began
II shall say I'm thirty-one all this
year anyway" she announced defiant
~ to that other self that receives our
dearest condolences. "Its such bad
form to say you're thirty-one years and
two months old, or whatever It may
happen to be. And If I have to'write it
IN make it thirty-one In round num-
bers-not even thiry-one plus" All Of
which, as the reader can see, was very
unscrupulous-
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 It.
~Well, what If I amY'
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 ami So are plenty Of
other gir-women, mean. Alice is
thirty, Mary thirty-one, Mabel twenty.
eight"
She paused In her enumeration, struck
by the thought that all these friends
were married. Matrtmony 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 as there was pleasant browsing
to be had outside.
When she had thought Of It at all it
had seemed to mean chiefly a tiresome
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 bars?
Could it be that there was a point
when one began to be thirT-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 stn up
per lip, realizing that she had no one
but herself to blame. There had been
a number Of men-the mischtevous dim
ple at the corner Of her mouth danced
into sight for 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 dethronement?
She had inadvertently "hved 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, scorning
such euphemisms as "spinster' and
'bacheIor woman
you're an old maid-just plain old
maidw she said audibly. But It 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 son ready to enter COL
lege and 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
Httenish..
Little by little her plainest gowns
were brought into requisitdon. Certain
little graces and frivolittes Of the toilet
were one by one abandoned. She timid-
ly asked Alice, her closest friend, to
teach the children to call her "aunte,"
a thing which she had hitherto forbid
den under the penalty Of sudden
death to the cherub that should first
be guilty Of it.
what Is the matter with your gasp
ed Alice, with stare Of amazement.
"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 haveT
I'm. just wearing the things suit