h she can bestow on her husband. All the rest--hair,
teeth, complexion, ears, bosom, figure, including the _demi-temps_--are
alike an imposition and a falsehood. In such case we should recommend,
for the sake of both parties, that during at least the wedding-tour, the
same precautions should be observed as when Louis XV. travelled with
"the unblushing Chateauroux with her bandboxes and rougepots at his
side, so that at every new station a wooden gallery had to be run up
between their lodgings."

It may be said that in all this we are ungenerous and ungrateful, and
that in discussing the costume of women we are touching on a question
which pertains to women more than to men. But is that so? Are we not by
thus exposing what is false, filthy, and meretricious, seeking to lead
what was once dignified by the name of "the fair sex" from a course
alike unbecoming and undignified to one more worthy of the sex and its
attributes? Most men like to please women, and most women like to please
men. For, as has been well said, "Pour plaire aux femmes il faut etre
considere des hommes, et pour etre considere des hommes il faut savoir
plaire aux femmes."

We have a right to suppose that women do not adopt a fashion or a
costume unless they suppose that it will add to their attractions in
general, and possibly also please men in particular. This being so, it
may be well to observe that these fashions do not please or attract men,
for we know they are but the inventions of some vulgar, selfish
_perruquier_ or _modiste_. We may add that if we want to study the nude
we can do so in the sculpture galleries, or among the Tableaux Vivants,
at our ease; and that for well-bred or well-educated and well-born
women, or even for only fashionable and fast women, to approximate in
their manners, habits, and dress to the members of the _demi-monde_ is a
mistake, and a grievous one, if they wish to be really and adequately
appreciated by men whose good opinion, if not more, they would desire to
possess.

THE FADING FLOWER.

If there is any part of man's conduct which proves more conclusively
than another the baseness of his ingratitude, it is his indifference to
the Fading Flower. Woman may well wonder at the charm which prostrates
the heavy Guardsman at the feet of the belle of the season. Even the
most ardent of worshippers at such a shrine must, one would think,
desire in their deity a little more sweetness and light. But the beauty
of