st as she
pleases. I am not afraid of competition!' I cannot help thinking that
this is the proper way to treat a woman who has been a true friend to
you, the partaker of your pleasures, of your joys and sorrows, and
that, on leaving her, you may as well pay her the compliment of taking
it for granted that she will know what is best for her and act
accordingly.

In France, a widow wears deep mourning for her husband during a year,
and half mourning during another year. Many a French widow wears
mourning during her lifetime. For that matter, there is no country in
the world where mourning is worn so long as in France, in the provinces
especially, where half the population is in black for somebody or
other. This outside show of grief may be exaggerated, for real mourning
is worn in the heart, not in the clothes; yet if a French widow in a
small provincial town should shorten her widow's veil by an inch,
people would say: 'If she never cared for her husband, she might have
the decency not to advertise the fact and fish already for another!'
And you have to conform to the usages of a country, especially when you
live in one which, like provincial France, is built of glass houses.

* * * * *

How long should a widow mourn the loss of her husband?

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.'

I cannot help thinking, however, that feelings of quite a different
nature ought to be entertained towards the old maid. If it is owing to
her bad looks or her poverty that her hand