silly little thing" and "having a good time" the end
of their existence. Heart-aches and disappointments enough follow for
their punishment; for they soon divine that when women cease to have
men for lovers, and are attended by school-boys, they have written
themselves down already as old maids.

Closely allied to these victims of folly or thoughtlessness are the
women who remain unmarried because of their excessive vanity--or
natural cruelty. "My dear, I was cruel thirty years ago, and no one
has asked me since." This confession from an aunt to her niece, though
taken from a play, is true enough to tell the real story of many an
old maid. Their vanity made them cruel, and their cruelty condemned
them to a lonely, loveless life. Close observation, however, among the
unmarried women of any one's acquaintance will reveal the fact that it
is not from the ranks of silly or cruel women that the majority of old
maids come. Men do not, as a rule, dislike silly women; and by a wise
provision of nature, they are rather fond of marrying pretty, helpless
creatures who cannot help themselves. Neither are cruel women
universally unpopular. Some lovers like to be snubbed, and would not
value a wife they had not to seek upon their knees. There are,
therefore, always chances for the silly and cruel women.

It is the weak, colorless women, who have privately strong prejudices,
and publicly no assertion of any kind, that have, even in youth, few
opportunities. They either lack the power to love strongly or they
lack the power to express their feelings. They have not the courage to
take any decided step. They long for advances, and when they are made,
recoil from them. They are constitutionally so timid that they fear
any step or any condition which is a positive and final change. If
marriage had some reservations and uncertainties, some loopholes
through which they could drag themselves as a final resort, they would
be more sure of their own wishes. These are the Misses Feeble-minds,
who cast the reproach upon feminine celibacy.

They feel that in some way they have been misunderstood and wronged,
and they come finally to regard all other women as their enemies. They
worry and fret themselves continually, and the worry and fret sharpen
alike their features and their temper. Then their condition is
precisely the one most conducive to complaining and spiteful
gossiping; and they fall, in their weakness and longing for sympathy,
to that