`` Modern methods of massage and cold cream have kept away the crowsfeet , and fortunately I had the Rogerson complexion to start with . You would n't think I was really thirty-eight , would you ? Thirty-eight ! Twenty years ago I thought anybody who was thirty-eight was a perfect female Methuselah . And now I feel so horribly , ridiculously young , Louisa . Every morning when I get up I have to say solemnly to myself three times , ` You 're an old maid , Nancy Rogerson , ' to tone myself down to anything like a becoming attitude for the day . '' `` I guess you do n't mind being an old maid much , '' said Louisa , shrugging her shoulders . She would not have been an old maid herself for anything ; yet she inconsistently envied Nancy her freedom , her wide life in the world , her unlined brow , and care-free lightness of spirit . `` Oh , but I do mind , '' said Nancy frankly . `` I hate being an old maid . '' `` Why do n't you get married , then ? '' asked Louisa , paying an unconscious tribute to Nancy 's perennial chance by her use of the present tense . Nancy shook her head . `` No , that would n't suit me either . I do n't want to be married . Do you remember that story Anne Shirley used to tell long ago of the pupil who wanted to be a widow because ` if you were married your husband bossed you and if you were n't married people called you an old maid ? ' Well , that is precisely my opinion . I 'd like to be a widow . Then I 'd have the freedom of the unmarried , with the kudos of the married . I could eat my cake and have it , too .
Oh , XXXXX be a widow ! ''
Nancy Rogerson ago by crowsfeet for in of to with