THE GAY WIDOW.

_A Leaf from the Reminiscences of a Collegian_.

(_For the Mirror_.)


_Why_ she came to the university was best known to herself. I cannot
bring myself always to analyze the motives of people's actions; and if
Mrs. Welborn _really_ desired, in lieu of acting mamma to children she
did not possess, to play the part of gouvernante to a couple of wild,
uncouth lads, (her nephews,) during their residence in college, it speaks
much for her good nature, at all events. They were not, I believe,
grateful for the means she adopted to display this amiable trait in her
disposition, nor did people in general appreciate it as they surely ought
to have done. _Ill nature_--and there is often a frightful preponderance
of _that_ quality in a small town--did not hesitate to assert that the
widow Welborn's motive for pitching her tent amid scholastic shades was
_in toto_ a _selfish_ one; even that of a design, if she could but
accomplish it, of adding _another_ self to _self_. I dare not, in this
era of refinement, speak plainer, but will take for granted that I am
understood. The widow Welborn, or, as she was more commonly termed. "The
gay Widow" from certain gregarious propensities, resided with a couple of
female servants in a small house, situated in the most public street of
the town; which I know, for this reason,--the principal court of our
college was opposite to it, and its gateway was the approved lounge, from
morning till night, of the most idle and impudent amongst us. Various
were the surmises as to _who, what,_ and from _whence_ the gay widow was;