ied people, and it would seem that bachelors and
spinsters were viewed with some suspicion. The fate of an old maid was
indeed a sad one; for she must spend her days in the home of her parents
or of her brothers, or eke out her board by keeping a dame's school, and
if she did not present a mournful countenance the greater part of the
populace was rather astonished. Note, for instance, the tone of surprise
in this comment on an eighteenth century spinster of Boston:

"It is true, an _old_ (or superannuated) maid in Boston is
thought such a curse, as nothing can exceed it (and looked on as
a _dismal spectacle_); yet she, by her good nature, gravity, and
strict virtue, convinces all (so much as the fleering Beaus) that
it is not her necessity, but her choice, that keeps her a Virgin.
She is now about thirty years (the age which they call a
_Thornback_), yet she never disguises herself, and talks as
little as she thinks of Love. She never reads any Plays or
Romances, goes to no Balls, or Dancing-match, as they do who go
(to such Fairs) in order to meet with Chapmen. Her looks, her
speech, her whole behaviour, are so very chaste, that but one at
Governor's Island, where we went to be merry at roasting a hog,
going to kiss her, I thought she would have blushed to death.

"Our _Damsel_ knowing this, her conversation is generally amongst
the Women ... so that I found it no easy matter to enjoy her
company, for some of her time (save what was taken up in
Needle-work and learning French, etc.) was spent in Religious
Worship. She knew Time was a dressing-room for Eternity, and
therefore reserves most of her hours for better uses than those
of the Comb, the Toilet, and the Glass."[261]

_VII. Separation and Divorce_

It may be a matter of surprise to the ultra-modern that there were not,
in those days, more old maids or women who hesitated long before
entering into matrimony, for marriage was almost invariably for life.
There were of course, some separations, and now and then a divorce, but
since unfaithfulness was practically the only reason that a court would
consider, there was but little opportunity for the exercise of this
modern legal form of freedom. Moreover, the magistrates ruled that the
guilty person might not remarry; but although they strove zealously in
some sections to enforce this rule, the rougher members of soc