ABSTRACT
[Tina’s mother] wondered … whether the invitation was the outcome of politeness or whether it meant – Tina. But Tina, alas … was getting perilously near to that age when a feminine creature who has been called a girl by courtesy for a long time suddenly develops into a woman of a certain age … It was borne in upon her reluctant mind … that it was useless to speculate any longer about Tina’s future. Tina’s future was fairly well assured, or, at least settled. It would be a future with a modest income, a house shared with her elder sister; she knew positively for the first time that Tina had overshot her mark, a fatal impediment to what may be called the turn-over of business. Poor Mrs. Mornington-Brown! … There must come moments in such lives when the chief thought is the wild wish that they had brought up their daughters to some other profession than that of marrying. Everybody cannot marry … (John Strange Winter, A Magnificent Young Man, 1896) 1
