m I called an Old Maid?" I asked quickly. I could have bitten my tongue
out for it afterwards.

"Oh, yes indeed, by all the younger set. You see you belonged to Grace's
set and they are all married. It makes you seem like a back number to us,
but you don't look like an old maid. I suppose you can look back ages and
ages and remember when you had lovers, can't you? Or have you forgotten? I
can't imagine you ever getting love-letters or flowers or any such things.
I hope I haven't offended you. I am horribly honest, you know. I say just
what I think, and you mustn't mind it. Mamma says I am too truthful to be
pleasant. But I like honesty myself, don't you?"

And with that, Tabby, she went away.

How terrible the child is! Now, Pet is one of those persons who go about
lacerating people and clothing their ignorance, or their insolence, in the
garb of honesty.

"I am honest," say they, "so you must not be offended, but is it true that
your grandfather was hanged for being a pirate?" Or, "I believe in being
perfectly honest with people. How cross-eyed you are!"

This is why honesty is so disreputable. When you say of a woman, "She is
one of those honest, outspoken persons," it means that she will probably
hurt your feelings, or insult you in your first interview with her.

I don't like to admit it even to you, Tabby, but I am horribly shaken up.
After all these years of talking about myself to you as an Old Maid, and
knowing that I am one, to hear myself called such, and to catch a glimpse
of the way I appear to the oncoming generation, shakes me to the
foundation of my being. Soon _I_ shall be pushed to the wall, as something
too worn out to be needed by bright young people. Soon _I_ shall be one of
the old people whom I have so dreaded all my life. Dear Tabby-cat! You can
remember when Missis received love-letters, can't you? They are not all in
the japanned box, are they? Do I seem old to you, kitty? Why, there is
actually a tear on your gray fur. Dear me, what a silly Old Maid Missis
is!

You see, after all, I have not been honest, even with myself. And, just
between you and me, I will say that I abominate honesty in other people.
There!

VIII

A GAME OF HEARTS

"Man proposes, but Heaven disposes."

Tabby, did you ever hear me speak of Charlie Hardy? No, of course not.
Your mother must have been a kitten when I knew Charli