than the mutual kissing on the part of women, which
is the more emphatic the more they dislike one another. Men are less
demonstrative and therefore more sincere in their friendships. Anyhow
there cannot be many at work in their offices, or where could this
idle crowd come from?

In spite of their haste, though, they generally find time to stare at
any woman who crosses their path. Why should not a woman go to the
City? She has as much right there as man, and yet if she is in the
least degree superior to the flower girls (?) who surround the Royal
Exchange, she is looked on as a freak of nature, a positive curiosity,
and is followed by every pair of male eyes within reach!

Mrs. Grundy is inclined to rather overdo her season, I think. There is
so much she might leave undone, so many things that "never would be
missed." Imagine the gratitude that would be displayed to anyone who
would put down and demolish those dreadful crushes, so called "at
homes," where nobody ever is at home; where you have neither space nor
air from the moment you arrive until the glad time comes for
departing. Does anyone enjoy them, I wonder! Does anybody like being
literally baked with heat, which I am sure must exceed even that at
Mexico; where one of the inhabitants of that delightful climate, when
he died and went to perdition, found the contrast so striking that he
was obliged to send home for his greatcoat!

Still, I suppose such entertainments will continue to exist. They are
a good deal cheaper than balls or dinners, and you can "knock off"
ever so many people at the same time.

It is well, at any rate, to consider economy in some matters in these
wofully extravagant days. When the shops are decked out in their
gayest colors to lure us on to destruction, why is it that "just the
very thing you want" is placed so conspicuously in the front of the
window, put cunningly near a mirror too, so that you see it all the
way round, and it appears doubly precious?

How convenient it is, by the way, when they have mirrors in the shop
windows. You can look to see if your hat is straight, or your veil
nicely arranged, without being credited with vanity. You are supposed
to be admiring the bonnets displayed to view, not yourself. Girls make
a great mistake when they take little surreptitious glances at any
mirror they come across. The action is always noticed and condemned;
while if they, instead, went up boldly, ostensibly to smooth their
hair o