her as one is told. The point is, to take
note, not of beauty's departure, but its gradually changing aspect, and
adapt costume, line and colour, to the demands of each year's
alterations in the individual. Make the most of grey hair; as you lose
your colour, soften your tones.

Always star your points. If you happen to have an unusual amount of
hair, make it count, even though the fashion be to wear but little. We
recall the beautiful and unique Madame X. of Paris, blessed by the gods
with hair like bronze, heavy, long, silken and straight. She wore it
wrapped about her head and finally coiled into a French twist on the
top, the effect closely resembling an old Roman helmet. This was design,
not chance, and her well-modeled features were the sort to stand the
severe coiffure, Madame's husband, always at her side that season on
Lake Lucerne, was curator of the Louvre. We often wondered whether the
idea was his or hers. She invariably wore white, not a note of colour,
save her hair; even her well-bred fox terrier was snowy white.

Worth has given distinction to more than one woman by recognising her
possibilities, if kept to white, black, greys and mauves. A beautiful
Englishwoman dressed by this establishment, always a marked figure at
whatever embassy her husband happens to be posted, has never been seen
wearing anything in the evening but black, or white, with very simple
lines, cut low and having a narrow train.

PLATE II

Woman in ancient Egyptian sculpture-relief about 1000
B.C.

We have here a husband and wife. (Metropolitan Museum.)

[Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
_Woman in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture-Relief_]

It may take courage on the part of dressmaker, as well as the woman in
question, but granted you have a distinct style of your own, and
understand it, it is the part of wisdom to establish the habit of those
lines and colours which are yours, and then to avoid experiments with
_outre_ lines and shades. They are almost sure to prove failures. Taking
on a colour and its variants is an economic, as well as an artistic
measure. Some women have so systematised their costuming in order to be
decorative, at the least possible expenditure of vitality and time
(these are the women who dress to live, not live to dress), that they
know at a glance, if dress materials, hats, gloves, jewels, colour of
stones and style of setting, are for them. It is really a joy to shop