haft rankled none the less sorely.
Yet happening to open a choice volume of European travels, I so lost
myself in the printed pages that the appearance of my host some two
hours later came as a surprise.

He explained that arrangements had been made for our party to join them
at dinner, and would not take a refusal from me. A servant had already
been sent aboard the boat, that Chita might attend on her mistress. The
man had orders to remain until morning, should I, following the example
of Senor Vallois and his niece, agree to lie the night in the house.
Unwilling to tax their hospitality so far, I excused myself from this
last, on the plea of my duties as boat captain, but before leaving I
gladly accepted his invitation to return and join them at dinner.

In due time I returned, and I trust that my appearance did full credit
to my country. Enough said that nay hat, shoes, breeches and waistcoat
were of the latest mode, that my coatcuffs extended to my finger tips,
that my shirt-frill was like a snowy waterfall, and that my coatfront
was padded to the fulness of a swelling bullfrog. As for my luckless
throat, it was so swathed about with its bandages of cambric that my
chin had a most supercilious elevation, and to look about I must first
turn my body. The neck was all but immovable.

This martyrdom was, however, small price to pay for my evening. Of all
costumes calculated to reveal and enhance the lovelinesses of women, the
Empire modes are by far the foremost. Indeed, such is the thinness of
gauzy materials and the scantness of breadth required, that,--if I may
venture my opinion not alone as a physician but as a gentleman,--the
flimsy, graceful costumes, though to be praised for the absence of
injurious stays, are too apt to over-expose the forms of the fair sex.

Yet a modest woman, by stopping short of the utmost extremes of fashion,
and no less by comporting herself with dignity and decorum, can suggest
thoughts no less elevating than enravishing through the graces of this
mode. With this by way of guide to my meaning, I shall not be
misunderstood when I speak of my rapture over the swell of my lady's
firm white bosom and the exquisite curves of her lissome young body
beneath the clinging sarsenet of her low-cut waist and narrow skirt. I
looked and adored as the artist adores the perfect lines of a
masterpiece. Yet with my adoration there flamed a fire of passion of so
white a heat that it burned away all dros