man seizes his partner and flings
her high in the air. Watch the flash of the eyes and see that this is
genuine temperament, not acting, but something inherent in the blood.
The crude colour of the national costume and the sharp contrast in the
folk music are equally expressions of national character, the various
art expressions of which open up countless enticing vistas.

The contemplation of some of these vistas leads one to the conclusion
that woman decorative is so, either as an artist (that is, in the
mastery of the science of line and colour, more or less under the
control of passing fashion), or in the abandonment to the impulse of an
untutored, unconscious, child of nature. Both can be beautiful; the art
which is so great as to conceal conscious effort by creating the
illusion of spontaneity, and the natural unconscious grace of the human
being in youth or in the primitive state.

CHAPTER XXVII

MODELS

An historical interest attaches to fashions in women's costuming, which
the practised eye is quick to distinguish, but not always that of the
novice. Of course the most casual and indifferent of mortals recognises
the fact when woman's hat follows the lines of the French officer's cap,
or her coat reproduces the Cossack's, with even a feint at his cartridge
belt; but such echoes of the war are too obvious to call for comment.

PLATE XXXII

Madame Geraldine Farrar as _Carmen_.

In each of the three presentations of Madame Farrar we have
given her in character, as suggestions for stage costumes or
costume balls. (By courtesy of _Vanity Fair_.)

[Illustration: _Courtesy of Vanity Fair_
_Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine_]

It is one of the missions of art to make subtle the obvious, and a
distinguished example of this, which will illustrate our theme,--history
mirrored by dress,--was seen recently. One of the most famous among the
great couturieres of Paris, who has opened a New York branch within two
years, having just arrived with her Spring and Summer models, was
showing them to an appreciative woman, a patron of many years. It is not
an exaggeration to say that in all that procession of costumes for cool
days or hot, ball-room, salon, boudoir or lawn, not one was banal, not
one false in line or its colour-scheme. Whether the style was Classic
Greek, Mediaeval or Empire (these prevail), one felt the result, first of
an artist's instinct, then a