178 OLD MAIDS BLESS THEM! 



seen too many splendid performers in the saddle all over 

 the world, who were anything but school -men, to have 

 a grain of prejudice left. I think I can see the high- 

 school horse and his rider as they actually are. 



I once knew a charming old maid in England. And, 

 by-the-way, do you know, my friend, how much you lose 

 by not cultivating the society of old maids? As the med- 

 dlesome mother-in-law has been chosen as the type of a 

 class whose power for evil or good we all recognize, but of 

 which we know many lovely members, so has the physi- 

 cally, mentally, and morally weazened old maid been ig- 

 norantly chosen as a type of a class that is, if you will 

 take the trouble to study it, as full of admirable quality 

 as an egg is full of meat. Why some poet has not arisen 

 to sing aloud their virtues I know not. Their very charm 

 is their delicate quaintness. We go wild over a dainty, 

 odd, old-fashioned bit of china why, that's just what your 

 old maid is, if you'll study the class as much as you have 

 bric-a-brac! We all crowd round and do homage to a 

 bud, and neglect her maiden aunt yonder. Unquestion- 

 ably the bud has her charms ; what bud has not, carti- 

 laginous though she be? But that it is imitation emu- 

 lation if you will rather than judgment which makes us 

 crowd around her, is well shown by the fact that equally 

 charming, and often far more intelligent buds, are at the 

 very moment lying perdues in the corner by the sides of 

 their mammas or their duennas, and sobbing their dear 

 little souls away if, forsooth, they are not indulging in 

 hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Moreover, the 

 bud fades or opens, and in either case is lost, while the old 

 maid is perennial, always delightful, always fresh. If you 

 know her not, it is your blindness, not her lack of charm. 

 Study her, friend ; she will reward thee as no tenth part 

 of a popular bud can possibly do. 



