the shoulder, tripped up and down the room for the usual inspection, turning herself before the pier-glass, and saying-" How do you like mes paniers, mon oncle?"

"My dear," said I, with a tone of severity which made her look sober at once, "I have no longer any patience with these fashionable follies; as long as they were only ridiculous, I could laugh at them. Now they are positively criminal. I must say I am heartily disgusted with them."

"Why, what do you mean? What new foible concerning the ladies, uncle?"

So I gave her the paper indicating the paragraph in question.

"Oh, nonsense," said she, when she had read. "I don't believe it, uncle. It's only a 'sensation' for the papers. I never have seen anything like it."

"Put out your foot," said I. She stuck out a little number two slipper, with a heel full two inches high, terminating in a point no larger than a sixpenny-piece. "Now turn round." There was the bunchy skirt, or panier," at her back.

66

"Those things are rightly named," I said; "they make a donkey of every lady who wears them. And really, my dear, now my attention is called to the subject, I think you present an appearance quite similar to the Grecian bend.' Beware, lest unconsciously you fall into the extent of the fashion, which is not only absurd, it is positively wicked. I did think the ladies were growing sensible-now they had put on thick-soled boots, and taken their dresses up out of the mud, but

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"Ay, there's the very trouble," interrupted Nelly; "now you've hit upon the cause of all the folly; these short dresses-they are the occasion for the French heels."

"How so?"

"Why in former days, a lady's feet might be as crooked, flat, and ugly as she pleased, her long skirt hid them, and it was no matter. Now, the feet are so generally exposed they must present a true appearance; and where they are not naturally shapely, why, the bootmaker's art must be called in to effect a remedy. Now the high heels make instep whether you will or not. It is impossible for the hollow of the foot' to 'make a hole in the ground' when it is lifted two inches from the groundyou see; and that is just how the fashion came about. As for the paniers,' it would never do for the ladies to get too sensible; then retired old sages like you would have nothing to scold about. We must have some little weakness, just to prevent us from becoming altogether angelic, spreading our wings and flying away."

"Well, I must say I think you are hurrying yourselves out of this wicked world just as fast as possible. What kind of mothers are these

tortured, bent, strapped women going to make, I should like to know?"

"Just such mothers as our grandmothers were before us; those grandmothers whom I have so often heard you laud to the skies." "They were not drawn out of shape as these women now-a-days."

"I don't know about the straps and buckles, but the high heels they certainly wore. I have a pair of blue satin slippers in which my grandmother walked, or, I suppose you would say hobbled,' at sixteen; except that they are somewhat faded, the exact counterparts of a pair which came home from my shoemaker's this very morning. As to the paniers, I refer you to that very common engraving, which one meets with everywhere of Franklin at the court of Versailles. I may not be a judge, but there one may see something which looks marvellously like the Grecian' to me."

"But really, uncle, if the grandmothers were, as you have often told me, the type of everything truly excellent, in dress as in everything else, I ought to please you vastly. My hair, fashionably arranged, is an exact copy of the old portrait of my maternal progenitor, which hangs in the garret. My dress is fashioned like hers as nearly as possible, and if I wore such a horrid bonnet and head-dress, I might be made to look as ridiculous as my grandmother."

I had to confess that Nelly rather got the advantage of me on the grandmother's question. We talk with tender memories of those quaint old costumes of our forefathers, but really, we do not realize how very absurd and ridiculous they were until we see them reproduced, and they become again the extravagant follies of the day. Still I cannot believe that any woman, with any true feeling in any age, could lend herself to such horrid monstrosity as this "Grecian bend." I am, very respectfully,

UNCLE GRUMBLER.

MUTUAL FORBEARANCE.

The kindest and the happiest pair
Will have occasion to forbear,
And something, every day they live,
To pity, and, perhaps, forgive.
The love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against sickness and old age,
Is gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compassionate and blind;
And will with sympathy endure
Those evils it would gladly cure.

CowPER.

FIRST FIGURE.-Dress of light green faille, trimmed with a plaiting at bottom. Ball cloak of velvet with wide simulated sleeves of bear'sear velvet. The trimming is of maize-coloured satin indented at the edges. The back plaits are fastened down by a maize silk cord with long tassels. Fuchsias in the hair.

SECOND FIGURE.-White tulle dress trimmed with sky-blue silk ruches. Bertha bordered by a double ruche of blue silk. The waistband is also of blue silk. Blue ribbon in the hair.

THIRD FIGURE.-Dress of straw-coloured poult de soie, covered by a Spanish tunic of black lace, caught at the sides by large bows of black satin. Black satin waistband forming two pendant loops. Corsage à la vierge covered with black lace. In the hair, a white aigrette issuing from a tuft of black feathers. Necklace and ear-rings of unburnished gold.

FOURTH FIGURE.-Du Barry dress of white tarlatan trimmed all round with a deep flounce surmounted by a small puffing. Five flounces surmounted by small puffings are placed one above the other, in the apron form on the skirt. Open redingote of pearl-grey satin trimmed all round with five very small rolls of black satin. This dress forms the panier behind. It is drawn back at the side by means of large bows imitating leaves. These bows are ornamented with very small rolls of black satin. The corsage opening on a plastron of white tarlatan placed on white silk, is closed with gimp buttons. Sabot sleeves with tarlatan puffings. Coral satin bows on the corsage and in the hair. Coral parure.

At this season, when people receive so many visits, the toilet de réception is of importance.

One of the prettiest forms is the robe cut a little on the bias (not behind), very ample, with a train, the body in one; the sleeves tight. The corsage fastened before with little knots of satin, which are continued almost to the bottom. At one side only are placed two biases of satin, which, parting from the waist, descend likewise almost to the bottom, and terminate in large bows. The sleeve has an ornament also cut on the bias, which is placed just above the elbow, and is finished with a bow of satin. Bebind, marking the waist, are two choux of satin, or, still prettier, a bow en evantail. Le velours epinglé is the material most in favour for this genre of robe; but it is also made in English velvet, peluche, or even simple cachemire, always ornamented with satin. If one desires to have a yet more negligé air, the dress should he composed of two colours. Velours epinglé is the mode, above all, in marron and in mauve of deep shades.

We have robes de chambre of bright-coloured tartan, lined with quilted silk of the colour that dominates in the plaid; the cords and tassels, of course, to correspond. Robes de chambre of black cachemire, trimmed with cachemire of a bright tint, or with satin bands, are also much worn; le satin Bouton d'or is certain to produce a good effect on black cachemire.

Young girls wear des sorties de bal in the form of little paletots, with rather wide sleeves; but pretty women put upon their heads, in lieu of warm wraps, scarfs of white silk or embroidered tulle, which they put under their chins, and envelope their faces with, after the fashion of sultanas. The lace mantelles of Spain is another favourite sortie de bal, and Indian lace shawls are, above all, employed for this purpose.