Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/230

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a hair-dresser's experience

A week or two rolled round, when a party was given by the lady of one of our well-known Judges; some six hundred tickets were made out; the East-end ladies did not think it would be a sin to go to that party, as they supposed while in sight of their church or steeple there was no harm. It was well they so determined, for it was a brilliant affair. The ladies were all elegantly dressed, a few of which I will describe. One lady was dressed in white silk, with upper skirt of silk, with white illusion puffings, which swept the floor for half a yard. One well-known East Fourth-street belle wore a double-skirt of illusion, small puffs about half a yard up each side; berthe to match, trimmed with little forget-me-nots, which could not be distinguished from natural flowers; her hair was trimmed with the same shade of blue flowers, drooping down on her snowy neck, which made her look more like wax-work than a human being. She had not too much religion to go to cither the East or West-end, whenever she thought it proper to go. There were many others there—but I will only say they were all beautiful.

I know a young lady, a native of Cincinnati, who was raised and educated in the same city, beautiful and highly accomplished, who lived principally at the most fashionable hotels, where she made the acquaintance of an Englishman, who was reputed immensely wealthy, and who fell in love with, and married her. For a long time she thought two horses were insufficient to draw them along, and wanted four; she was so pampered that at length she fell out with all her young schoolmates. They staid through the summer, and left in the fall for New Orleans, where they