The Women Of Our Time.

she , too , once did not intend to remain au old maid . She had , like "Master Shallow" and his "lawsuit , " her little " fond expectations'' at one time . We all remember that good portrait Sir Walter Scott draAVS in " Guy Mannering " of the

old maid , Miss Bertram , Avith Ensign Binkie's letters in her escritoire , ( cherished souvenir ) , and his little I . O . U ' s ., and depend upon it many an old maid you or I meet and Avot of , has preserved the recollection , thoug h in some altered form and manner ,

of her Ensign Binlde ! Underneath those grey locks and that calm exterior still exists , believe me , a deal of " sentiment , " and many a most p leasant and valuable and friendly " atom , " amid the " atoms" Avith whom Ave

congregate and converse hour by hour , has quietly played that " role" of singleblessedness , because , as the Irishman said , " things Avent contrary , " and " it Avas all mighty disappointing . " I say this to defend " old maids" from the charge

commonly laid against them of Avanting " sentiment , " the ti'uth is , they are often the best example of its reality and its intensity ! But Ave must not shut out also

another side of the question . There are many ladies Avhom Ave all know , and for whom Ave ought to feel profound respect , who , for some reason or another , for " good and sufficient causes them thereto moving , " have remained single through choice , and become old maids by Brevet Rankin

, the lapse of time and the flight of years ! Many there are—most noble specimens of Avomanhood—doing their duty gallantly in all things , Avho have devoted themselves to a single life , perhaps in a sense of responsibility for others , AVIIO have accepted

the position God seemed to mark out for them ; and Avithout fuss , or affectation , or singularity , or pretension , have become willingly the old maid of their family circle , the old maid of the neighbourhood , the old maid of a large " kith and kin " of

troublesome boys and laughing girls . HOAV many we can recall and remember to-day , pleasant , educated , cultivated , refined , gentle , good , and generous , Avho Avere the deli ght of the society which they graced while they lived , aud are tenderly mourned hy those whom they have left behind . How many blameless lives , and unselfish aims , and loving words , and gracious Avorks , and

bettering influences , and happy associations can AVO join still with the term " old maid , " as our memory to-day surveys the " years that are past , " and recalls those figures Avhich fill , and those fond faces which seem to smile out from , the crowded canvas before us . NOAVI feel bound to

, speak honestly and clearly , and I think that the prejudice against old maids , and the jokes against old maids are very un-Avorthy . I do not mean to deny that here and there you will stumble upon the tattling old maidand the scandalous

, old maid , and the flirting old maid , and the bedizened old maid , and the soured old maid , and the cantankerous old maidyou Avill—but what I do say is , that they are the exceptions to the rule , and that those exceptions prove the rule to be the

very contrary . No doubt Avhen you come across her , a real mischievous old maid is a very disagreeable personality , and a godless old maid is a horror ; but such specimens of " old maidendom" are very feAv and far betAveen , and Avhen we do come across them Ave should all give them a " clear berth " as fast as Ave possibly can .

The Avriter of romances , or of novels , may bring in the vicious and meddlesome , and intriguing old maid , but as a general rule such exist only in noi'els and romances , and are not to be found in real life . The old maids I haA'e knoAvn— and I have met many in my career—have been all the

kindest of women and the best of friends . They have set to all around them a quiet example of being good , and doing good , they have been most useful to man , and most faithful to God in their time and generation . They have excelled in many

points and tastes—artistic , literary , benevolent , and humanitarian — they have been self-denying and sedulous in respect of their own lives and means , zealous Avorkers for the good of others ; true sisters of Mercy and Charity have they

proved themselves to be in their time and generation . And I would fain hope that Ave have heard the last Avords of detraction and disrespect against them ! You and I , kind reader , must know many a home , many a village many a family many a neighbourhood Avhere the old maid is as the " very salt of the earth , " shed-ling li g ht and purit y , and