a-dozen bon-bon boxes form
a composition that is really charming. Is there any one from Marlborough
House could do it as well? Only think of the tons of three-cornered
tarts and Bath buns that form the decoration of a London confectioner's.
And yet this pretty arrangement is due to the intuitive taste of the
little scrubby ignorant daughter of the people who serves in the shop. I
will not draw your attention to the quiet becoming style of her dress,
because you have often confessed to me in private your admiration of
Parisian toilettes, though in the presence of MRS. D. you loudly affect
to prefer the dowdy manner adopted by that lady in common with the most
part of her countrywomen. I will, therefore, make no further mention of
ladies' costume, only protesting that, in my opinion, all Frenchwomen in
their degree dress to perfection, and that an ugly bonnet is no certain
proof of wisdom or goodness as is generally supposed.

Turn to the houses, and compare their gay ornate appearance with the
dismal monotonous streets of London. Every one has its separate
character. The portal is of sculptured stone, always decent and often of
beautiful design. A little bit of carved cornice, a simple moulding
round the windows gives individuality and interest to the upper part
without any of the astounding architectural eccentricities of Regent
Street. Enter, and you will find the furniture of even the humbler
occupants varied, characteristic, and pretty. Where ornament is
attempted, it is well chosen and sparingly introduced. A beautiful
cabinet, a few small pictures, a group or two in bronze, some exquisite
china--quite a contrast to the overwhelming magnificence of English
upholstery. I know, DOWLAS, you gave a _carte blanche_ to JOBKINS and
SON for your house in Mecklenburgh Square. Well, well--if the subject is
a painful one we will not pursue it; though I must say that I think six
copies of the peacocky young woman in fetters, called for some
inscrutable reason the Greek Slave, rather too much for two
drawing-rooms (couldn't you send up a pair to the best bed-room, and one
to the butler's pantry?) and I may also take this opportunity of
informing JOBKINS, JUNIOR, who does the "tasty" business of his firm,
that merely multiplying expensive tables and chairs, and daubing
everything over with gold, though it may satisfactorily swell the bill,
shows a miserable want of fancy and cleverness in a decorator.

I quite admit the solidity