s. It made one's eyes ache to
look at her. This was not an uncommon, but a characteristic instance.
Such combinations may be justly regarded as the rule in Englishwomen's
dress. For purple they have strong liking. They not only wear it in
gowns, but they use it for trimming, in bands and flounces, in ribbons,
in feathers. They combine it with all other colors. An Englishwoman
seems to think herself "made" if she can deck herself in some way with
purple silk or velvet, or ribbons or feathers. Of course I am excepting
from these remarks a few who have intuitive good taste, and other few
who employ French _modistes_, and who submit implicitly to their
authority. The latter condition is essential; for even when the main
body of an Englishwoman's dress is in good taste she is very apt to
destroy its effect by some incongruous addition from her stores of
heterogeneous jewels, or by some other ornament--a collar, a cape, a
_fichu_, or a ribbon. They have a sad way of putting forlorn things
about their necks and on their heads which is very depressing, unless
it is astonishing, which happens sometimes. An Englishwoman will be
tolerably well dressed, and then will make a bundle of herself by tying
up her neck and shoulders in a huge piece of lace; or she will wear
specimens of two or three sets of jewels; or she will put a colored
feather in her hair, or a bonnet on her head, that would tempt a tyrant
to bring it to the block. I remember seeing a marchioness whose family
was noble in the middle ages riding with an "American" lady who had not
as much to spend in a year as the other had in a week; but the
marchioness was so obtrusively ill dressed and the American with such
good taste and simplicity that both being unusually intelligent, both
perfectly well bred and self-possessed, and both fine healthy women, a
person ignorant of their rank would have been likely to mistake the
latter for the noblewoman.

It has been said that Englishwomen dress better in full evening dress
than in what is known as _demi-toilette_. I cannot think so. It is not
the English dress that then looks better, but the Englishwoman; that
is, if she has fine shoulders, breasts, and arms. It is the beauty that
is revealed, the woman pure and simple, that pleases the eye, just as
is the case elsewhere. For the things that an Englishwoman will put on,
or put half-off herself, in the evening, are amazing to behold. An
Englishwoman in full dress who has not a fi