d of refined and cultivated
tastes. In fact, I believe there is nothing so disenchanting, so
contrary to ideal young womanhood as a lack of neatness and tidiness in
person and dress. This wonderful physical organism with which we have
been endowed depends for its perfection and health and attractiveness
upon the care we give it. The teeth, the hair, the complexion, are all
dependent for their beauty--and it is quite right that we should strive
to make them beautiful--upon constant attention to those conditions
which insure their health and perfection. And the most important of
these conditions is cleanliness. At the present time, no young girl can
hope for recognition or welcome in refined and cultivated society, upon
whose teeth tartar and other discoloring deposits are allowed to
accumulate; whose breath is not pure and sweet; whose hair is muggy and
untidily kept; whose finger nails are neglected and dark at the edges.
These things may seem trifles, but they are not, for they are the
outward expression of an inward grace; all these marks really reveal
character. An untidy girl may be talented and good-tempered, but she
lacks one of the most essential qualities for gaining and retaining
respect and affection.

The room of any young girl is a great revealer of character in respect
to real refinement and purity of taste, especially if one comes upon it
somewhat unawares. Not very long since, I was called by unexpected
circumstances to spend a day or two at the house of a friend, where,
owing to the severe illness of two members of the family, the spare
rooms were not available and I was without delay or warning shown to the
private room of a young lady member of the family. It was a low attic
room with a deep dormer window, and, seen unfurnished, might be regarded
as unattractive in size and shape. But the impression it made as I
entered and surveyed it was of refinement, beauty, repose, and purity.
The furniture was plain, but the bed was made up so beautifully, and
looked so inviting in its snowy covering that I did not notice whether
the bedstead was fine or plain. The carpet and papering of the room were
of light neutral tints, and the broad sloping walls which made the sides
of the dormer window were ornamented, the one with a long branch of
dogwood blossoms, the other with graceful groupings of poppies and swamp
grass, painted thereon by the occupant of the room herself. A wicker
rocking-chair had a cushion of bri