thing is so depressingly shy--I say depressingly, because his shyness
affects his company. You try to draw him out. You ask question after
question, and have to supply the answers yourself, only obtaining, by
way of reward, despairing upward glances, that are by no means an
encouragement to proceed.

The most fatal effect of this shyness, however, lies in the fact that
he dare not get up to go! He sits toying with his hat, he picks up his
umbrella three or four times, and lets it drop again; finally,
starting up with a rush in the middle of a conversation, he hurries
out, shaking hands all round with everyone but his hostess!

Would it be a very heinous breach of etiquette, if after an hour and a
half of this curate's company, one should suggest diffidently that it
was time to go?

In strong contrast, there is the bold, dashing man, who only comes
when he knows all the daughters are at home, not so much because it
gives him pleasure to see them, as because he would not deprive them
of the pleasure of talking to him. He has a faith in himself that
removes mountains; no lady's heart can beat regularly in his presence,
according to his confident opinion.

So on the whole I do not think afternoon tea is so nice abroad as it
is at home. It is not so pleasant with many as with a chosen few. I am
selfish, I am afraid, but I must confess I enjoy mine most with the
sole company of a roaring fire, a very easy chair, and a novel!

CHAPTER V.

ON DRESS.

I do not know who was the originator of the remark, but it has often
been said, and is generally admitted, that women do not dress to
please the men, but to outdo one another.

I think just the same might be said of men in their turn. It is after
all this spirit of competition which helps to make the world go round.
It is innate in man, and woman too, to always try to outrun each
other.

With clothes it is undoubtedly the case. The ancient Briton must have
vied with his neighbor in different designs with the woad plant. An
unusual curve, an uncommon pattern, caused, I daresay, as much
excitement then as the fashions of our own day.

I often wonder how they will manage some points in the histories for
the coming generation. In most of these books you see illustrations
and descriptions of the dress of the period, the costume of the reign.
How, oh historians! can you show forth those of Victorian times? Fifty
years have passed already! There were four seasons in