The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-02

N/ maid entered and. putting " back the inside blinds let flood of April sunshine into the room. This done, she stopped to turn the day it being one of her duties to see that Time and the calendar in Miss Georgiana's room agreed.
 As she quietly withdrew that lady opened her drowsy eyes. but only to close them again Immediately. Though she was full of appreciation for the days that arrived fresh every morn ing" like the breakfast rolls-she 8 liked to become aware of them gradu- ally. drifting back and forth on shai- low waves of sleep, until irrevocabiy cast ashore, wide awake.
 gentle yawn broke the stiffness as she lay, half asleep and unwilling to move until convinced that there was no further hope of drifting back into oblivion. Evidently there was none, for little by little her vision cleared until she was startled into full wake fitness by the date staring her In the face from the opposite wall. With such a calendar there was no mistaking 1t. It was the 18th of April.
 That she, who had an innate dislike of all calendars, should be the recip lent of one that recorded the days in lMO lHCIGS nl6 II anu do DAo'sN as jet was an illustration of the irony of fate. She was person who had not the slightest need of a calendar, re- garding the least offensive of them as full of disagreeable innuendo. This one was the gift of a friend with a mania for eXactness, who had con plained that Georgiana's habit of da :. ing letters Some time In May I think" or Late in October-but what diff ference does 1t make, anyway! was undermining her nervous system. T3 Georglana-to whom a day was a day and who cared not jot what particu- lar link 1t formed in the chain of time-this passion for mathematics was incompreh ensible. But she accepted 1t as a cross to be borne in the sacred name of friendship and, hanging the calendar opposite her bed, gravely in structed the metaodical Nora to wind 1t up every morning.
 Never since it lad hung there had any day loomed so porrentiously black to her imagination as this 25th of April. 1t was that the day In the year that she would fain have avoided. being one ot those ruthless anniversaries that even tIe lightest mortals recognize as days Of rccG- oning when what-one-is is subtracted from what-one-ought-to-b with the most mortifying result.
 She buried her TaCS III neT uIHlS lo Silui the calendar out but 1t did no good. Though she covered her eyes, she could not close her mind to its reproach and she groveled knowing that whether she willed or not her case was up for investigatlon
 Do you know how old you are?' it giared sat,rically.
 Not exactly" was her mute admission. '"rhirty -s-; or seven or eight. If you rlease, I'd rather not know precisely. 1 daf tad a to you In our family we never mention birthdays"
 You were born in the year.
 Haughtily-"Stop right there! We'll let bygones be bygones."
 Have you ever heard
 And this same flower that smiles today
 Tomorrow will be dying?
 Do you know that you are old enough to have sweet sixteen for a daughter?'
 Miss Brant sprang out of bed and grasp Ing the offending calendar with more force than care, stuffed it into the nearest drawer with the remark that she never wished to see its face again.
 How anyone can live with thing like like that staring her in the face and re- minding her of the sere and yellow. she grumbled as she turned on the cold water for her bath, ''is a mystery to me feel as if I'd aged visibly in the last 10 minutes"
 The thing seemed so probable that she picked up a hand glass and standing with her back to the light, scanned her face with anxiety. As the examination proceeded she breathed more freely. There were, to be sure, some of the little tell-tale lines by which the years blaze the path for old age, but on the whole the survey raised her spirits. An exultant smile curled the corners of her mouth as she put the glass down.
 T don't know just how old I am,' was her complacent verdict, but I am sure that don't look it. And so long as one doesn't look it and doesn't feel 1t, the years do not matter"
 Having thus imperiously brushed aside accepted standards and taken fresh hold on her faith in life, she proceeded with her toilet, But in spite of her protesta- tions the shadow of the day was upon her. There was no getting away from the fact that if the past was accommodating, the future was diminishing. Most of her friends, she recalled. were married and settled, and the fact brought a pertinent question to her mind Could it be that she was unmarried-and settled?
 As Nora brought in her tray she espied several letters upon it. one of which she fecOSnlZeQ dldT OH as q WeuulnS lnNltd- ton. Taking up silver steletto, she ran it slowly under the flap of the envelope, speculating as to whom it might be. When she had read it she remained motionless for several minutes, gazing out of the window, with a puzzled little frown on her forehead.
 She could discover no logical reason why the wedding invitation of a discarded lover should send a pang through her heart but it did. It touched upon chord already made sensitive by exposure to a 36th or 37th birthday and brought home to her the stupefying fact that she who still felt herself on the threshold of life, was in reality a last leaf.
 At the thought she was seized by a panic. In which the fine aplomb of the bachelor woman gave way to the abject despair of the old maid. She had serio- comic impression that the last train for Domesticvile had departed, leaving her alone on the platform, the invitation In her hand figuring as mocking farewell waved from the rear platform of the last car.
 For the first time she faced the prospect of a spinsterhood that should endure to the end and saw herself playing the pa