fty, or of forty? They have, indeed, "wasted their sweetness
on the desert air." Some call them "old maids;" but it is a malicious
appellation, unless it can be proved that they have refused to be wives.
I would always take the part of a spinster; they are a peculiar people,
far more "sinned against than sinning." Every blockhead thinks himself
at liberty to crack a joke upon them; and when he says something, that
he conceives to be wondrous smart, about Miss Such-an-One and her cat or
poodle dog, he conceives himself a marvellous clever fellow; yea, even
those of her own sex who are below what is called a "certain age" (what
that age is, I cannot tell), think themselves privileged to giggle at
the expense of their elder sister. Now, though there may be a degree of
peevishness (and it is not to be wondered at) amongst the sisterhood,
yet with them you will find the most sensitive tenderness of heart,
a delicacy that quivers, like the aspen leaf, at a breath, and a
kindliness of soul that a mother might envy--or rather, for envy, shall
I not write _imitate_? But ah! if their history were told, what a
chronicle would it exhibit of blighted affections, withered hearts,
secret tears, and midnight sighs!

The first spinster of whom I have a particular remembrance, as belonging
to her caste, was Diana Darling. It is now six and twenty years since
Diana paid the debt of nature, up to which period, and for a few years
before, she rented a room in Chirnside. It was only a year or two before
her death that I became acquainted with her; and I was then very young.
But I never shall forget her kindness towards me. She treated me as
though I had been her own child, or rather her grandchild, for she was
then very little under seventy years of age. She had always an air of
gentility about her; people called her "a betterish sort o' body." And,
although _Miss_ and _Mistress_ are becoming general appellations now,
twenty or thirty years ago, upon the Borders, those titles were only
applied to particular persons or on particular occasions; and whether
their more frequent use now is to be attributed to the schoolmaster
being abroad or the dancing-master being abroad, I cannot tell, but
Diana Darling, although acknowledged to be a "betterish sort o' body,"
never was spoken of by any other term but "auld Diana," or "auld Die."
Well do I remember her flowing chintz gown, with short sleeves, her
snow-white apron, her whiter cap, and old kid glo