h herself with a plain black dress for afternoon, on
which she wears collars and cuffs of embroidered muslin usually (always
supplied her), and a small afternoon apron, with or without shoulder
straps, and with or without a cap.

In very "beautifully done" houses (all the dresses of the maids are
furnished them), the color of the uniforms is chosen to harmonize with the
dining-room. At the Gildings', Jr., for instance, where there are no men
servants because Mr. Gilding does not like them, but where the house is as
perfect as a picture on the stage, the waitress and parlor-maid wear in
the blue and yellow dining-room, dresses of Nattier blue taffeta with
aprons and collars and cuffs of plain hemstitched cream-colored organdie,
that is as transparent as possible; blue stockings and patent leather
slippers with silver buckles, their hair always beautifully smooth.
Sometimes they wear caps and sometimes not, depending upon the waitress'
appearance. Twenty years ago, every maid in a lady's house wore a cap
except the personal maid, who wore (and still does) a velvet bow, or
nothing. But when every little slattern in every sloppy household had a
small mat of whitish Swiss pinned somewhere on an untidy head, and was
decked out in as many yards of embroidery ruffling on her apron and
shoulders as her person could carry, fashionable ladies began taking caps
and trimmings off, and exacting instead that clothes be good in cut and
hair be neatly arranged.

A few ladies of great taste dress their maids according to individual
becomingness; some faces look well under a cap, others look the contrary.
A maid whose hair is rather fluffy--especially if it is dark--looks pretty
in a cap, particularly of the coronet variety. No one looks well in a
doily laid flat, but fluffy fair hair with a small mat tilted up against
a knot of hair dressed high can look very smart. A young woman whose hair
is straight and rebellious to order, can be made to look tidy and even
attractive in a headdress that encircles the whole head. A good one for
this purpose has a very narrow ruche from 9 to 18 inches long on either
side of a long black velvet ribbon. The ruche goes part way, or all the
way, around the head, and the velvet ribbon ties, with streamers hanging
down the back. On the other hand, many extremely pretty young women with
hair worn flat do not look well in caps of any description--except "Dutch"
ones which are, in most houses, too suggestive of