se by rebuilding it upon a commercial
foundation, and cementing it with the dower of a "tradesman's"
daughter. But if these blameless ones, whose exclusive dust has long
since been consigned to family vaults with appropriate inscriptions,
could have foreseen the dreadful inroads of the trading spirit, if
in a moment of prophetic rapture they could have watched the painful
decay of caste which permits a lady to dabble in bonnets, to toy with
the making of fancy frames, to cut dresses almost like a dressmaker,
and, horror of horrors, to send in bills to her customers, surely
they would have refrained from the tomb in order to stem the tide of
advancing demoralisation. But they are dead, and we who remain are
left to deal as best we may with the uncompromising spirit of the age.

[Illustration]

It is absolutely essential to the proper production of a Lady
Shopkeeper that she should have been at one time both affluent and
socially distinguished. If to these qualities she can add the supreme
advantage of good looks and a modest demeanour, her career is certain
to be a prosperous and a rapid one. If, finally, she has been mated
to a husband who, having long ago spent his own cash, contrives in
a short time to run a best on record through hers, if he is a good
fellow of a sort, with a capacity for making friends which is as large
as his generosity in staking money, she may be sure that no element
will be wanting to her success. It is of course unnecessary that she
should have served any apprenticeship to the trade that she ultimately
adopts. When, after some glittering seasons of horses and footmen
and brilliant parties, the crash comes upon the little household, her
friends will be called into council. Some will recommend a retired
life in a distant suburb, where it is currently reported that L250 a
year may be made to play the part of L2,000 in the heart of May Fair.
Others will hint that governesses have been known, after years of
painful labour, to lay by a sufficiency for a short old age; others,
again, will dive into the storehouse of their reminiscences, in order
to produce for inspection the well-known example of a colonel and
his wife, who defied both the fates and the rheumatism in the modest
_pension_ of a Continental watering-place. All these suggestions,
however, are eventually put aside in favour of the advice that a
shop should be started, a _nom de commerce_ adopted, and a circle of
friendly customers be acq