soon makes the brightest flowers wither; besides
which there would be an affectation in a young lady's making her
appearance in a London ball-room decked, like the goddess Flora, with
real flowers; while all the world prefer the artificial as the least
troublesome and the most enduring.

For the young, cheap and inexpensive materials are often the most
effective. Heavy silks and satins are out of place. It is more a
question of colour and make than material. How often a bright green
and white muslin, or even cotton, well made and well put on, worn by
a pretty girl with a good complexion and graceful "tournure," puts to
shame and thoroughly eclipses a more costly and elaborate "toilette!"
How often we have been charmed by the appearance, at the breakfast
table, of a young fresh looking girl, who in her simple and
unpretending, but well-selected attire, suggests all that is most
beautiful in nature, the early sunrise, the opening rose-bud, encased
in its calix of tender green! Such a sight has refreshed while it
has gratified the eye, and if the young only knew how very little is
required to add to those charms which are the property of youth, they
would not be at so much pains to copy those elaborate "toilettes"
which seem to be invented only to repair the inroads and damages of
years, and to enrich the dressmakers, and which are quite "de trop,"
quite out of place with the young. Many are the materials which
suit the young and which are inexpensive. Alpacas of various shades,
muslins, foulards, tarlatan, tulle, light silks, light in texture as
well as colours. These are not expensive materials. We remember at
this moment an exceedingly effective costume, made of white alpaca
with a narrow green stripe, which was worn with a crinoline bonnet
trimmed with mauve. The bonnet and dress did not cost more than _L2
10s_., and scarcely as much. It was made at home, and all that was
required for the gown was nothing when compared to the bills which the
most ordinary dressmaker would have run up for tapes and buttons, and
hooks and eyes.

But dressmakers have their fortunes to make, and it is well for them
that there are people in the world who are rich enough to employ them.
Some dressmakers refuse to make up what is called "the lady's
own materials,"--that is, they require their customers to buy the
materials of them, and therefore it is by no means difficult to
understand that, under such circumstances, a dressmaker's bill m