A Woman's Age

It is said that a woman's age can be known from what she eats, with no need to ask her about it — for that question is unseemly in certain situations.

Among the things mentioned on this subject: if a woman is seen eating freely of ices, chocolate, and sweets, she is under twenty; if she takes much to spices and salty things rather than fruit, she is around thirty; if she eats the wing of the fowl or its breast, she is over thirty; and if she eats a great deal of fowl, she is over thirty-five.

And if she eats everything, and cannot be marked by any particular habit, then she is 'without age' — as the French say — that is, she is in the age of despair; and this last is perhaps the truest of all, for a woman — indeed any human being — once she has despaired of her youth, has no ambition left but food.