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which she cracked fastest, nuts or jokes; I grew familiar, and said several sentences which were neither in Sterne, nor in the prompter's books, nor in Chesterfield, nor in the Minerva library; and she gave me so much encouragement, that I at last begged the honour of cracking a walnut for her which had mastered the strength of her tender hands, and the teeth of her polished steel nut-crackers. I was honoured: and, like a boor, forgetting myself and delicacy too, I popped the nut between my teeth, and cracked it as I have seen a cook crush a crab; and from this indelicate act arose this very diversified choice of perplexities: if I kept the nut, after taking it from the teeth of her intentions, she might think me a greedy man; if I threw the nut away, and declared it to be a bad one, her eyes had seen it was a good one, and she might have reason to doubt my veracity; if I gave it her back again, she must needs think me a filthy ill-bred fellow; in short, let me have done what I could with the nut, my reputation had been cracked with the shell of it, and was at stake. She, however, like a humane human creature, saw that I sat self-convicted of a fault in politeness, saw too my embarrassment, and relieved me from all further perplexity, by declaring that she would eat no more nuts, for they were crude indigestible things, and, in her humourous way, began wondering what physician without patients first introduced them to the dessert table; and I answered her question, by surmising that it might be Dr. Squirrel. This poor pun saved me; and while she was laughing in her cambric, I took occasion to slip the nut of perplexity into my pocket, and resumed as much confidence as I shall ever possess. Thus the dessert-hour passed to a safe conclusion, for I was guilty of no other impropriety than the one I have mentioned. But now came on the dreaded hour for tea, and now began my trepidations afresh. If there is one species of circumstance in which I am more exquisitely awkward than another, it is the polite etiquette of tea-table ceremonies. Oh! how I envy you ye nice-handed Damons of the tea-board! Ye insipid sippers of the fragrant nymph! ye millinery-men, who coolly mince down the hot and nervous liquor which "not inebriates," with nerves as true and well-tuned to your will, as the strings of the violoncello of Linly are to his exquisite hand! Ye gallant cavaliers of souchong, that so delicately and gracefully do the ceremonies of the tea-tray before the obliged and approving eyes of the attended fair, oh! how I envy ye the calm composure of your crossed knees and more composed faces, unruffled as the tea-water in your cups! would I not give the dearest aud most difficult-to-be-got Aldine classic out of my unique library, to purchase that easy jerk of your's of one of two feet swinging over the knee of one of two legs! Ah, how I hope, and then despair, ever to attain to that perfection of precision which enables you to lift your cups to your teeth, without striking the hard and brittle rims against your harder teeth-that decision of hand and intention, which makes you, instead of lifting the scalding cup to your nose to drink, to carry it to your expecting mouth, and no further; and that too at one punctually-performed movement ! But ah! I envy ye in vain; it is "a grace beyond the reach of art. A very clever poet, in his day, has said that the gifts of reading and writing come through the hand of nature-so does the gift of drinking tea like a well-bred lady-like-gentleman,

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Men are born to excel each other in various ways: one man, who shall "shake the senate or the bench," shall not handle a cup of green tea without shaking himself; another, who shall wield a sword quite to the dissatisfaction of the enemies of his country, shall not hold a silver spoon at a tea-party without disgracing himself, losing all his laurels, and being silently sneered at in sleeve by all the male butterfly creatures that usually perch and flutter about the sugar basins and the other sweets of a tea-table; another, who shall solve a pozerproblem in Euclid, shall not understand the mystery of a muffinet, so true is it that one man is born to handle a silver tea-spoon, and another a wooden soup-ladle.

The dreaded tea-torture was served up, the distillation being done below, (as is usual when the family is not stingy enough to suspect their honest domestics to be rogues by the politest of all possible footmen. Every thing now went on well till the second cup. I had borne the overflowings of the first full cup (which, owing to the unsteadiness of my hand, dropped like "minute drops from off the eaves," scalding my knees and legs) with the patience of one of Fox's martyrs; if no one observed it, no one should have heard mention of it; but my severest trial was reserved for the second cup. I was rasing it with a faltering hand to my quivering lips, when all at once I felt a something warm and soft rubbing against my leg; I paused, and looked down : it was a black cat, who probably, had a penchant for silk stockings of the same colour, and was expressing her approbation of the fine texture of them, as I suppose, by rubbing her silken sides against my leg. Now, there are two things which I have a mortal antipathy to the first is sitting with five talkative Frenchmen in a small room, and the second is a black cat. No sooner had I ascertained" the nature of the beast," than with a convulsive start, I bounced back, chair and all, against the dexter arm of a footman at that time passing behind me with a replenished tray. The wreck of bread and butter, and the crash of cups that followed, may be imagined, but cannot be described. Suffice it to say, that the cat was well scalded-the footman well scolded for what he could not help-and I was well excused by my friend, who declared, with the most good-natured face in the world, that my mother had been frightened by a black cat in a muff-box, when I was seven months in embryo; and, besides, that there was a family antipathy to black cats-my mother being the grand-daughter of the eccentric Bonnell Thornton, of cherry-coloured cat" memory. These well-turned apologies saved me so well, that every person present pitied and condoled me as the unhappy victim of an hereditary antipathy, with as much real sympathy as if I had been the heir of a family evil by my mother's side, or a chalk-stone gout by the father's. The blackness was ordered out of the room, though a silver collared pet of my young lady's; and the conversation turned to the constitution, character, and domestic virtues of cats in general; and here I recovered my wits so far as to join in the discussion with more vivacity than is my wont; for I thought it would be grateful in me after giving so much unwilling pain, to give a little willing pleasure. Many opposing opinions were held about cats of all colours; and the Captain told us in a very vivacious way, that he had a man in his company who had been many times flogged for an unfortunate

in sugar and souchong), and the fine cup handed

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piece of disloyalty—an unalienable attachment to French brandy-and who declared that he never could look at a cat with one tail without a painful remembrance of a cat with nine tails. My fair wit, too, had some inclination towards the belief of Pythagoras, and doubted whether cats were not metamorphosed old maids, from the attachment they displayed to those dowager-spinsters, Inspired by my hatred of cats, I was bold enough to declare my doubts of their virtues altogether, and strongly insisted that they were cruel, selfish, hypocritical, cruel, and not to be trusted in breakfast parlour or butler's pantry; for that they had always their whiskers in the cream of one, and their paws in the butter coolers of the other." They pretend," said I, with a voice already growing sound with self-satisfaction, and a countenance brightened up with confidence as I beheld the approving smiles of my auditors—" they pretend attachment to man but any one, who knows any thing of men and manners, may see that it is all fudge and mere hypocrisy, and that attachment to themselves is the real sentiment of their breasts. They affect, too, to be domestic; but look at them in summer scampering through your flower-beds after butterflies, and sneaking away from bees, because they fear their stings ;or lying perdue in the grass, to pounce on the harmless robin, who really loves man, and puts his trust in him or else sleeping on the walls in the sun, or disturbing the sleep of the house, with their moonlight serenadings, that make the night hideous,' and would wake a soul under the ribs of death.' In winter to be sure they are more in-doors; and you may find them very contentedly squatting on the rug before the parlour fire, because there is less of disturbance rude' than they meet with at the kitchen fire from the scullion maid and boy, and hot and kicking cook : disturb them with a toe as gentle as that of Gayton, and as considerate as the much kissed one of Rome, and woe to your silk stockings! which will undoubtedly be rent by their resentful claws! or perhaps, they conceal their resentful choler, as they do their collar, under the smooth silky coat of hypocrisy, and only vent it, on the sly, on your friend's dog, or revenge it on the cold meat in the pantry, after having secured their own character from 'squint suspicion,' by seducing an intimate cat acquaintance to partake in their dishonesty, and then betraying him or her, by swearing at him or her as if they knew nothing of their old friend, and bringing in the butler to turn out the delinquent with the usual ceremony of kicks and cudgeling consequent upon such detection. But let them have their way, and they will sit all day, and wink at the fire and then at you, as who would say 6 my feet are extremely comfortable :' but they do not care a mouse's squeak for your feet, whether they are hot or cold and now they glance a green eye at the brown toast that stands before the fire, and wish yon would leave the room for a book in the library; and now they look under the grate, as the burning ashes drop there, and fear each coal to be a mouse; and now they purr and sing their tea-kettle balderish song, and affect to be very sincerely attached to your service, when, if your neighbour Jenkins have greater board-wages, they would leave you at a minute's warning. But exhaust the toast-plate of its contents, and give them none of it-let the fires go out, and the room grow cold-and then they begin to suspect they hear a mouse squeaking

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in the kitchen, where there is a good fire and scraps, or at least preparations for supper going on, and they grow peevish as the porcupine, and cry mew,' if the parlour door be not immediately opened; nor will they let you rest till it be." This lively anathema against the whole race of Felinas and Toms was received. in its progress, with many small laughs, which kept going off at intervals, like those involuntary or impatient guns that go off before a general volunteer volley and when I had concluded, it was declared, una voce, to be a true estimate of the character of cats, as they run in these degenerate days; and all my offences were so thoroughly redeemed, that I saw there was a considerable balance in my favour.

But this good hour was not to last. Adam did not long remain in happiness in Paradise, nor I in the momentary blessedness of my parlour Eden. The servant had been despatched below for some purpose or other; and I, being immediately over against mine hostess, was very smilingly requested to succeed him in his very pleasant office of waiting on the ladies! What could have induced the good old lady to confer such a distinction on me, "of all men else," seeing what she had seen. I know not but it was my fate: it showed, however, her forgiveness of all my previous offences; and was, perhaps, meant in kindness to me that I might, by a short course of such honourable employment, qualify myself for future honours. Oh, cruel kindness! kind cruelty! I could not refuse, (what "man of woman born" could?) the honour of serving a bevy of the prettiest dames in Christendee:" I accepted, therefore, with an outward smile of satisfaction but an inward shrug of chagrin, an office which I could not refuse, and left my seat with the fearful plate of toast in my trembling hand; and, whether it was the fear of its slipping from my hold which induced me to pinch it too tightly with my finger and thumb, or whether it was the brittleness of the china, I know not, but just as I had reached the first fair of the circle, split went the plate, and splash went its well-buttered contents into the muslin lap of the half-shrieking fair one, leaving me the statue of Despair, convulsively nipping the fragment of the plate more tightly than ever, and blushing with shame and confusion as I vainly stammered out an apology interrupted by more dashes and hiatuses than you will find in ten pages of Sterne. My young lady could not conceal her chagrin at being so much buttered and bedaubed, and my friend refused to interpose for me any more; there could be no hereditary antipathy to a plate of toast and butter. But my fair wit, who, I verily believe" loved me for the dangers I had undergone," as I love her, " because she did pity them," saved me from the frowns of the fair partner in this last dire accident, by wittily remarking, that her fair cousin was never before toasted by any gallant, and she might hope soon to become "the toast of the town." And here the reverend beau parson, who had been disappointed in a promised living lately, said, very feelingly, that the plate was china, and, like some men's promises easily broken. My friend could not refrain laughing at me, and that most heartily; as for me, I could as soon laugh at my lawyer's bill of costs in a lost action as have laughed then. The scattered toast and china were, however, collected from the stained carpet and stained lap of the young lady, and carried out of the room; and if I had

been carried out of the room at the same time it would have been a great kindness to me, but a greater to the company. To increase the misfortune, too, the tea being poured out into the cups, during the time occupied in preparing the duplicate plate, it necessarily became cold as the month: my friend, too, cruelly rallied me on the subject, till I was almost choaked in endeavouring to suppress my choler. I persisted, however, in sipping my tea, to keep my tongue still, lest it should upbraid him; but each drop went down my throat like cannonballs down the gullet of an iron-fed ostrich: I could not drink, but gulped it down; and this, if it was observed, was, no doubt, construed into another breach of good behaviour; deeming, as they must have done, that I drank so greedily of it, as to be in danger of strangling from my haste. A sudden storm is generally succeeded by as sudden a calm: but it was not so with our unfortunate narrrator: the raillery of my friend increased, and threatened to overwhelm me quite. Perhaps he thought by this to cure me of my faults; but he might as well have hoped to cure an irritable wound by scratching it with a gooseberry-bush, or patch a splintered leg with sticking-plaster, or bind up a broken heart with cobwebs. My fair friend still was true to the defeated side, and parred off his sharp sarcasms by entering into a diverting dissertation on the brittle nature of china and friendship, in which she gave him some smart home-touches for his unfriendly desertion of his fallen friend, in every word of which I silently and perfectly agreed. In short, so far and so fiercely did my friend push his sarcasm against me, that I had much difficulty to persuade my fair ally that he was indeed my friend, and much more to persuade myself. If I had listened long to her reproaches of him, I should have forgotten friendship, and listened only to love, who is, I am already heretic enough from friendship to think, much truer in heart, and considerably more eloquent in speech, and amiable and endearing in manners. But, happily for me, harmony was at length restored, though the toasted beauty," as she was now called, whenever she let fall her eyes on her dress, stained and bespattered with toast and butter seemed still to be at " doubtful war" with me in her looks. I felt it, indeed, a wounding thorn to the heart to be, but for a moment, an object of dislike, or of disapprobation, to a pretty girl of blooming eighteen.

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Time waits for no one. My fair friend now left her chair at the sound of a carriage drawing to the door, and the entrance of a smart gentleman of the long cane, who would have done honour by his appearance to my Lord Duke's rout in "High Life Below Stairs." gentle ally declared she must retire; and gracefully complimenting her fair young friends, and courtesying with the elegance of a fine minuetter to all the circle, and smiling graciously on me, she prepared to leave the room. And at this moment, mine hostess, and much louder mine heart whispered me to see my best and fairest friend to her carriage: at the thought my head grew giddy and my heels twisted under me in such a lively manner, that if it was ever at any time possible for a man to turn his back on himself, I think I could have accomplished it at that time. But I persevered as cowards often do, and descended the stairs with her fair warm hand gradually freezing, as it were, in the death-like coldness of mine; for my cowardly blood was I know not where at that time, and I was indeed

as the statue of I know not who-that stood in the hall. With shame I now tell the tale: in my extreme hurry to get before the fair creature to the carriage door, (confounded be all narrow old-fashioned halldoors!) my right foot got entangled in her sweeping train of muslin, more delicate and chaste, and finelytrailing, than the train of the strutting and consequential peacock, which in him is pride and vain showiness, but in woman is grace and modest concealment. I bounded instantly off again, but alas! alas! it was to render my situation more distressing-my awkwardness the more complete; for, with my left foot flew the train, and the sudden jerk curtailed the dress of its "fair proportions," and left an accomplished lady as bob-tailed as a Welch dairy wench, or a Dutch frow. My ruin seemed inevitable. She uttered not a word; but her silence spoke volumes to my ears, that tingled with the pricking red blood of sudden shame as hotly as if they had been well boxed for the awkwardness of their antipodean relatives, my heels. O fortune! fortune! thou art the arrantest baggage that ever followed a foot cavalier to the field of enterprize! Like Will-o'the-wisp, that draws the unwary traveller into a ditch, and then, disappearing, leavest him, in his extreme extremity, so didst thou desert me in the moment of need, and leave me the presence and prey of the most enthralling circumstances and soul slaughtering sensations!

To finish my catalogue and climax of miseries, I expected that my fair friend would have refused any further assistance of mine; but she bore her loss of train with a philosophy not usually to be found, even among female philosophers; she absolutely turned off the accident with a laugh, and said, in her vivacious way, that if I would spare the small train of admirers which dangled after her heart, I was welcome to cut off the long train that which dangled after her heels and saying this, she stepped into her carriage with the grace of the goddess of beauty into her dove-drawn car, leaving me in the air and in admiration of her wit and womanhood, and bound to her for her loving-kindness as long as my heart has one fibre that can cling about the image of her person (standing thus as in a holy shrine and ark), as the weak ivy clings about the limbs of some sylvan sister of the woods, and never looses its hold, till that which should support it and be its living stay, falls to the earth with it. Yet, though I was pardoned by her, this last vile accident did not pass unnoticed by the groom-porter and the other servants; and I concluded that I should hear of it again, notwithstanding their suppressed sniggers and uncorked giggles, which were, nevertheless, oozing out at the compressed corners of their mouths, and were, no doubt, exploding in all corners of the hall, where they could give vent to their laughter with safety. And, with these consoling assurances, I returned slowly up stairs; where I had no sooner reappeared, than it was perceived, by my cowering confusion, that I had been once more involved in awkwardness; and a buz ensued, as of a swarm of bees when some unfortunate traveller for the firm of Honey, Wax and Co., returns back with broken wing, and a beggaredscrip. My very good friend looked a very ingenious set of queries at me, and followed me with his surmising eye till I was securely seated behind a wide-branching candelabra on the table, where I dodged him a-bit, till the breath of his impatience was gone, and that of mine was beginning to

chafe itself into an inward storm.

After a few minutes had passed away, I mustered courage to say that we must depart; he took my hint, for he saw that I was completely chagrined and discomforted; and with some few of the usual ceremonies, and being pressed to stay, and pressing as heartily to go, and receiving many invitations to come again, we got away without any fresh scrape save a scrape of my shins against the pedestal lamp at the stair-head, in sliding through the party, who would see us down; and except my saying, "Good night Captain--," as I took the old lady, his mother by the elbow instead of the hand; and we bade adieu to a circle of pleasant, intelligent, kind, and accomplished beings, whom, though I wish till I grow old to meet again, I shall never, I fear, have the courage again to venture among. THE AWKWARD MAN.

BALLAD.

T'is when I slumber thine image steals o'er me,
Waking my soul from the calm of repose,
Bringing bright visions of beauty before me,
Thoughts that my lips are forbid to disclose;
Dear are those visions my senses pervading,
When fancy is drest in her brightest array,
Oh, may they never from memory fading
Chace from my heart thy lov'd image away.
But if thy bright eyes so modestly beaming
Lure the young heart they can ever controul,
How can I wonder that thus in my dreaming

They should combine to illumine the soul;
Thus may they ever when slumber steals o'er me
Gladden my heart in the hour of repose,
Bringing bright visions of beauty before me,
Thoughts! that my lips are forbid to disclose.
J. E. CARFENTER.

LONDON AND PARISIAN FASHIONS.

FROM A VARIETY OF THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, INCLUDING COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM "Le Petit Courrier des Dames"-"Journal de Paris et des Modes, L'Observateur des Modes et L'Indiscret"-" Le Follet Courrier des Salons"-" Le Mercure des Salons," &c. &c.

DRESSES.-Toilettes may be considered as more simple in their form than general for the promenade, the concert &c. preserve their former make. For balls, they are characterized by richness, and are frequently adorned by a profusion of diamonds and precious stone. Dresses both for the promenade and ball are this season made particularly long.

The apron is less commonly adopted than the mode of the dress being caught up at one side or sometimes both, ribbon bows, bouquets of marabous, and precious stones being used for this purpose.

A dress of imitation-blonde on an under-dress of white poult de soie. Peach-blossoms in the form of a garland caught up the dress towards the middle; similar flowers were placed in the sleeves in the form of a half circle; they also serve to form the coiffure, interspersed with diamond ornaments.

A very elegant dresss was observed in the boxes of one of the patent houses, it was composed of white

spangled velvet, lined with rose-colored satin, open in front and exhibiting a white under dress of gros de tour, adorned with white silk embroidery; the corsage similar to a redingote, was lined with rose-colored silk and exhibited on the bosom a blonde guimpe terminated round the neck by three or four rows of a little gold enamelled chain, a similar one entwined round the wrist a small portion falling over the hand.

A pretty morning dress was in the form of an open redingote of pearl-grey cashmirienne, lined with celestial lilac taffeta, the collar descending low on the shoulders and bordered with a blue piping.

A dress of white crape or satin, adorned with pale blue jacinthe and satin ribbons of the same shade, has a remarkably elegant ensemble.

It may be remarked that the skirt open at the side and united by rows of ribbon nœuds is a very prevailing style.

The corsage is crossed and worn low, frequently with a handkerchief tied high up the neck.

Sleeves are scarcely so large, the double sabots for the short sleeves are much worn.

The skirt is very generally of an extreme width and length.

Ribbons of the most dazzling hues and in great variety are very generally worn.

For sleeves, three biais forming a short sleeve placed en bouffant one above the other are on a novel plan.

HATS CAPOTES &c.-The shape of hats and capotes are still small, the crowns pointed; the ornaments vary according to the taste or fancy of the wearer.

A very elegant hat was formed of azure-blue velvet, low crown, the shape turned up, on one side a bird of paradise feathers as an aigrette.

Turbans are also very generally adopted, English lace is much used for them and is very elegant, a large flower or a few very small ones are often times placed in the folds of the net; turbans in the oriental style have lost none of their favor, gold or silver tissue mixed with colored gauze, satin, or even cachemere, are materials frequently employed for them.

The Jewish turban is also very much in vogue and suits regular features.

Many charming turbans of muslin embroidered in gold and separated by silver chains.

Turban of white gauze with the bands worked in precious stones has an elegant appearance.

VARIETIES.-Embroidery on canvas has become a very prevailing mode of amusement, the operation being easy and the result most pleasing, it is much employed for foot-stools, bell-pulls, and a variety of uses in fashionable life. It is usually worked in worsted, but for white or yellow, silk is used with the best effect, assuming the appearance of silver or gold embroidery. The porte bouquets are more used than ever and in a greater variety of pattern.

Fans are much worn with elegant painted designs of pastoral subjects, some paintings after Wattean have had a very elegant effect.

The mechanical corsets, for the great facility afforded by them for the immediate lacing of the stays, have been strongly recommended from many eminent quarters for those who are subject to tightness on the chest, or others of delicate health.

The Pompadour fans, enamelled and inlaid with gold are very much patronized by our ladies of ton. Scarfs are generally white whatever may be the color

of the dress. The next prevailing color is celestial-blue for the ball-room particularly.

The Ferronnières are not abandoned, but very frequently give place to bandeaux of small pearls.

Persian lilac and jasmine are flowers much in vogue just now.

MATERIALS & COLOURS:-Reps is still a fashionable material for for evening dress.

At concerts, crape, velvet, and satin, are indifferently employed. Azure blue velvet has a very beautiful appearance.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

PLATE I.

FIGURE 1.-EVENING DRESS. A Figured satin dress with corsage en pointe, mantilla deeply cut at the shoulders, with narrow double edging, short sleeves, with double bouffans. Skirt ornamented with a double row similar to the edging of the corsage, figuring tablier. Satin turban ornamented with precious stones.

FIGURE 11.-WALKING DRESS.-Cachmere des Indes pelisse, close fitting corsage, cape very much cut away in front, and ornamented at the shoulders by a ribbon nœud. Sleeves of a great width to the wrist, the band of which is pointed upwards towards the arm. Hat ornamented with a couple of feathers.

FIGURE 111.-BALL DRESS.-Richly embroidered in a double row half way up the dress, with occsaional nœuds of ribbon interspersed. Corsage tight-fitting, and draped at the top, round it is worked blonde figuring pelerine, the hair lightly ornamented with a couple of sprigs and flowers.

First and Second Hats of velvet ornamented with flowers and feathers.

CAP & BACK VIEW.-A tulle cap ornamented with ribbons, made square in front, the corners finished by flowers, with a nœud on the summit of the crown and crossed behind.

MIDDLE HAT, A Hat of silk, open shape, with small ruche round the crown and ornamented with a single feather curled over the crown.

PLATE II.

FIGURE 1.-EVENING DRESS.-Crape dress, half high mounting draped corsage, with a nœud attached to the centre; worked lace mantilla; sleeve terminating in a lace sabot a little below the elbow. The skirt is terminated by a lace flounce of similar pattern, with ribbon nœuds at intervals, and finally caught up by a ribbon nœud. Coiffure ornamented by sprigs of flowers and a diamond arrow.

FIGURE 11.- -FANCY COSTUME.-Muslin dress, tightfitting boddice, ornamented with satin bars and three 'rows of ribbon nœuds, one down the centre, and on each side; lace epaulette; sleeve tight-fitting to the elbow, terminating in a blonde sabot, skirt striped, over which a very full apron is caught up rather more than half way up the skirt,

FIGURE 111.- DINNER DRESS.-A dress to which is applied a profusion of Brussels lace down the corsage (which is tight-fitting) graduating to the ceinture where it terminates in a peak, and in a reverse manner enlarges to the hem. Sleeves full to the wrist. Beret of velvet slashed with satin and ornamented with ostrich feathers.

FIRST TURBAN.-ATurban with a circular fold enlarging at the centre, with an end pendant from the right side; it is ornamented with ears of corn.

SECOND TURBAN.-A Turban of silk in the Turkish style with the fold placed nearly down the centre.

BERET. A Beret of satin cut into a peak in front, in one of the hollows formed on each side are seen feathers which are placed there to great advantage. PLATE III.

FIGUURE 1 EVENING DRESS.-A velvet robe, closefitting corsage en pointe: sleeves wide, falling by the side, with aperture of sufficient capacity to admit the uplifting and moving of the arm freely. Blonde collerette of gothic pattern with gold brooch in front. The sides of the robe ornamented with a spiral fold of satin gradually increasing to the bottom round a piping of the same. Coiffure ornamented with a bird of paradise.

FIGURE 11-FANCY COSTUME.-La belle sauvage. The material may be used according to taste.

FIGURE 111.-CARRIAGE DRESS.-Lace dress, draped at the top of the corsage, which is close-fitting, the the rest of the dress, plain. Mantelet with a calèche formed in a manner to afford the greatest facility. A narrow edging surrounds the hood, an edging of blonde round the cape, and deep blonde round the hem of the mantelet,

CAPOTE & BACK VIEW.-A cap edged with quilling and ornamented with a feather.

PLATE IV.

Figure 1.—OPERA CLOAK.—A Satin Cloak, long peaks extending down the dress, edged with a satin ruche and terminated by ribbon loops, oriental sleeves hanging very low, lined with differently colored satin, turned up at the side and fastened by a couple of ribbon bows.

Figure 11.-GERMAN FANCY COSTUME.—Similar observations may be extended to this Costume as to the Indian one above.

FIGURE 111.-EVENING DRESS.-Chamberry Gauze dress. Corsage half high mounting, with a fold in the middle graduating to the ceinture. Sylphide sleeves which, with the top of the corsage and the sides and bottom of the robe itself are ornamented with a double row of satin piping,

COIFFURE. A Coiffure ornamented with blonde and full frilling with some blades of corn introduced,

HAT & BACK VIEW.-A Satin open shaped hat, ornamented with a couple of ostrich feathers.

CAP & BACK VIEW.-A blonde Cap ornamented with flowers and foliage.

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