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¬in any manner destructive of health and beauty ; on the contrary, I know many women of rank who began this career at seventeen, yet who now, at the age of six or seven and twenty, nay, some even at thirty, still retain a considerable share of freshness ; and, as to longevity, put- ting looks out of the question, I know fifty, aye a hundred, women who are far above eighty, and, though constantly in mobs from night to morning, without ever seeing the sun for months together, nor ever desiring to see him, yet continue to set death and disease at defiance. Fashion, therefore, my dear friend, gives birth to a species of mummy, which the Egyptians you once told me of never knew. " ¬Finding I had no chance of prevailing upon the topic of sleep, I now tried my chance by suggesting, as the truth was, that his sister's dress was rather disordered; submitting how far it might be decent that she should any longer appear in it ; here, however, I was equally unfortunate; my friend expressed the ¬utmost ¬
