A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 104: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

102 A LADY BACHELOR. true, a certain element in society (and it is the most numerous class) do resent agreeableness on the part of a girl who is comparatively passée, especiaily if the party possesses singular attractiveness. Some noble girls passively fall into the position of old maids, having as warm, cheer- ful hearts and temperaments as ever beat or existed. Others make the fight in social life and harden themselves to the penalties. And now, one word to young men who are influenced to become abettors of this cruel policy. If a girl who at twenty-eight is still attractive, the certainty follows that she is possessed of the permanent elements of beauty, and will be attractive at sixty; but a narrow- shouldered, prominent-featured girl with a brilliant com- plexion at sixteen may fade like a brilliant sunflower and become exceedingly plain at eight-and-twenty. ‘These con- stitute the majority. Remember, we are speaking only of those whose attractiveness lies in their prettiness alone. Those whose only capital is their capacity to dance, gigele, and simper little nothings, whose brains would snap asunder under one real intellectual assault—that sort of girls are, as stated, in the majority; they have but one am- bition in life, and they usually attain their desire. They ride over really more attractive girls, and because of lack of discernment and the susceptibility to infatuation, the ordinary young man is ‘‘ taken’ with this class, while the better, nobler, and more worthy girls are left to culti- vate long curls or marry an idiot. lam pretty severe, dear reader, but ] draw no fancy picture. I write of what I’ve observed and remembered. Gomirebooks ' ay a) pa * Naa f