Empress in waiting

"Her lips were pale, as though she had not slept - or perhaps she had been crying. I thought in that moment that she looked older, more elegant; she had an element of that beauty which only age can confer upon a woman, and I imagined I was catching a glimpse of the Erica she would one day become. Truly, I thought, she is an empress-in-waiting!"

Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist

A woman only gets beautiful with age.