To a serious woman, on the contrary, old age lends a peculiar charm
which renders her company agreeable to, and sought for, by all
serious minds. Her conversation and manners still possess all the
blitheness, freshness and vivacity of youth. Her steady lightsome
gaze, tempered by a benignant and reflective mind, lends her an air
of amiability and majesty. Her language is instructive, her counsels
encouraging, while her reproaches arouse the heart to a sense of
duty. She has friends wherever she is known, friends who revere and
respect, without idolizing her. In her youth she never pandered to
flattery, now, old, she shall not experience ingratitude. The friends
she earned by her sterling worth will recall to her mind the happy
souvenirs of her youth, even up to the last days of her life; for her
years bear with them all their primitive charms which can never
decline under the influence of time, because the thoughts and
affections that produced and preserved them are now what they were,
solid and grave. And while the companions of her youth languish and
fret in their sad isolation, she, always the same, sees herself
surrounded by a multitude, anxious to profit by her experience.
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