le, and is a
good musician. I remember seeing her and her sisters with her mother,
Lady Paul, at Florence, when I had little notion that she was to be
Mrs. Hare. I never meet Francis Hare without being surprised by the
versatility of his information; it extends to the fine arts,
literature, rare books, the localities of pictures and statues; in
short, he is a moving library that may always be consulted with profit,
and his memory is as accurate as an index in rendering its precious
stores available.

It is strange, that the prominent taste of his wife, which is for
music, is the only one denied to him. He afforded an amusing instance
of this fact last night, when Mrs. Hare, having performed several airs
on the piano-forte, he asked her, "Why she played the same tune so
often, for the monotony was tiresome?"--an observation that set us all
laughing.

Took Mrs. Hare out shopping--saw piles of lace, heaps of silk, pyramids
of riband, and all other female gear. What a multiplicity of pretty
things we women require to render us what we consider presentable! And
how few of us, however good-looking we may chance to be, would agree
with the poet, that "loveliness needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
but is, when unadorned, adorned the most."

Even the fairest of the sex like to enhance the charms of nature by the
aid of dress; and the plainest hope to become less so by its
assistance. Men are never sufficiently sensible of our humility, in
considering it so necessary to increase our attractions in order to
please them, nor grateful enough for the pains we bestow in the
attempts.

Husbands and fathers are particularly insensible to this amiable desire
on the parts of their wives and daughters; and, when asked to pay the
heavy bills incurred in consequence of this praiseworthy humility and
desire to please, evince any feeling rather than that of satisfaction.

It is only admirers not called on to pay these said bills who duly
appreciate the cause and effect, and who can hear of women passing
whole hours in tempting shops, without that elongation of countenance
peculiar to husbands and fathers.

I could not help thinking with the philosopher, how many things I saw
to-day that could be done without. If women could be made to understand
that costliness of attire seldom adds to beauty, and often deteriorates
it, a great amelioration in expense could be accomplished.

Transparent muslin, the cheapest of all materials, is on