Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-12
CHAPTER Ill.
Monument or Trousseau ;

MEN are very strange people.
mi They are like those horri-
BILE sums in algebra that
you think about and worry about
and cry about and try to get help
from other women about, and then,
all of a sudden X works itself out into
perfectly good sense, Not that l
thought much about Mr.. Carter, poor
man! When he wasn't right around l
felt it best to forget him as much as
l could. but il seems hard for other
women to let you forget either your
husband or theirs.
| know now that / really never
got any older than the poor. fool
ish, eightenn-y years child that Aunt
Adeline married off safe" all the
time | was the refuge" sort of wife.
/ would sit and listen while the other
wives talked over the men in utter
bewlderment and most times ter
ror, then l would force myself to a
little more forgetting and poor Mr..
Carter must have suffered the con
sequences; but all that was "a mild
sort of evaporation to what a widow
has to go through with in the mat
ter of-of, we'll | think hazing is
about the best name to give it.
Molly Carter said Mrs. Johnson
just day before yesterday. after the
white dress Judge Wade episode that
Aunt Adelne had gone to all the
friends up and down the street to be
consoled about, "if you haven't got
sense enough to appreciate your pres
eth blissful condition somebody ought
to operate on your mind"
/ was tempted to say why not
my hearth" ! was glad she didn't
know how good that heart did feel
under my tucker when the boy
brought that basket of fish from
Judge Wades fishing trip Saturday
] have firmly determined not to blush
any more at the thought of that gor-
geous man-at least outwardly.
Don't you think il is very-Very
lonely to be a widow, Mrs. Johnson
asked timidly TO see what she would
say about Mr. Johnson, who is really
lovely, / think. He gives me the
gentlest understanding smile when
he meets me on the street of late
weeks.
Lonely, lonely, Molly? You talk
about the married state exactly like
an old maid. Don't do tits fool
ish, and you will get the lone notion
really fastened in your mind and let
some fool man find out that is how
you feel. Then it will be all over with
you. | have only one regret, and it
| Is that If | ever should be widow
MIR. Johnson wouldn't be here TO see
how quickly | turned into an old
maid, by the grace of God Mrs.
Johnson sews by ASA ssinating the
cloth with the needle. and as she
talked she was mending the sleeve
of one of Mr.. Johnson's shirts.
81 think an old maid is just a
woman who has never been in love
with man who loves her. Lots of
them have been married for years, ="
/ said, just as innocently as the soft
face of a man of cream, and went
on darning Billys socks.
"Well, be that as it may. they are
the blessed members of the woman
tribe" she answered, looking at me
| sharply. Now I have often told
| Mr.. Johnson" but here we were
interrupted in what might have been
the rehearsal of glorious scrap by
| the appearance of Aunt Betty Pol
lard, and with her came a long, tall.
lovely vision of a woman in the most
wonderful close clingy dress and hat
that you wanted to eat on sight.
hated her instantly with the most
intense alteration that made me want