Two days after the funeral of her husband, a young widow received the visit of a friend, who remarked, on seeing the sadness engraven on her face:
'Poor dear! how sad, how haggard you look!'
'Ah, dear, that's nothing,' sighed the young widow; 'you should have seen me yesterday!'
As a rule husbands are mourned as long as they deserve.
And so are we all.
CHAPTER XXXIX
ON OLD MAIDS
Different types of old maids — Many of them are undisguised blessings — Few men are good enough for women — Old bachelors and old maids.
Next to the mother-in-law, the stepmother, and the widow, it is the old maid who comes in for the largest share of scorn and sarcasm, and this is all the more mean that, nine times out of ten, she is not responsible for her position. The more generous-minded call her 'unclaimed blessing,' but many are found, women amongst them, who whisper 'Cat!' And all this is perhaps nothing compared to 'ancient spinster.'