Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/186

 "Why not, Grandma?"

"Why not? Because I don't approve of young women gettin' dissatisfied with the sphere to which they've been called. That's why not."

"But I haven't been called to any sphere. Now that Bessie and Willie are almost as grown up as I am, mother doesn't need me any more, and I don't see why I'm not entitled to a change if I want one."

"If you want a change," said Grandma, promptly; "you'd much better get married."

"Now, Grandma! You know well enough that I never had an offer. If I had, you'd have heard of it fast enough."

"And you don't deserve to have one," cried the old lady, with asperity, "if you go and spile everything by turning schoolmarm."

This was a sore subject with Old Lady Pratt. She, who was the sworn foe to single blessedness, had constantly to hear that her own granddaughters had "never had an offer." It was not that they were less sought than other girls of their age, but early marriages had almost gone out of fashion since Grandma's day, and many a handsome girl might get to be well on in the twenties before a serious suitor made his appearance.

Mary William—so called to distinguish her from her Uncle Anson's daughter, who went by the name of Mary Anson—Mary William was at this time twenty-one years of age. Her father, the