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Show INTO SERE AND YELLOW LEAF. Eighteenth Century Women Seem to lie.'? Willingly Settled Down. In an English novel of the eighteenth eigh-teenth century the author thus refers to a certain woman: "She had reached the age of 35, an age beyond which no woman can hope either to feel or inspire in-spire deep affection." In one of Geor.e" Mptcdlli's early novels he refers re-fers to a character as a woman "on the criminal side of 30." A Boston woman in the last century, after reaching reach-ing the age of 30, put on, over her abundant natural hair, a false from and a cap. These were the outward and visible signs of the matronly maturity ma-turity she had reached. She gave up at the same time all the gayer forms of social intercourse. She confined herself thereafter to the mild and alderly variety. She had "come out" into Boston society at 15. After two years of social gayeties she had married. mar-ried. At 30 she was (he mother of eight children. She had lived the ac-tive ac-tive part of her life. In accordance with the conventions of her time she settled down to a life of vegetating domesticity. She was not an exception. excep-tion. She was the normal woman of 'ier day, registering its customs, just as a good thermometer registers the tempeiatuie. Appleton's Magazine. |