"I'm sure it wasn't. Aunt Matilda was foreordained to be an old maid."
"She won't allow anyone to speak of her as an old maid. She says she's a spinster."
"What's the difference?"
"I think," returned Rosemary, pensively, "that an old maid is a woman who never could have married and a spinster is merely one who hasn't."
"Is it a question of opportunity?"
"I believe so."
"Then you're wrong, because some of the worst old maids I've ever known have been married women. I've seen men, too, who deserve the title."
"Poor Aunt Matilda," Rosemary sighed; "I'm sorry for her."
Alden's Mother