BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 111
one of the free and independent States of America is about to pass a law. Before it comes into force it is to be hoped the fashion of exaggerated hats will have changed, though it must be admitted that the prevailing fashions are not unpicturesque. Dolly Norcott and Mrs. Milbanke might have been presented to the most querulous American critic of tall hats as very pleasant arguments in their favor, and one would not object to have had the two ladies put into competition with any two American beauties of their age, or indeed in competition with any two sisters of any other country, though of late years America has claimed the palm, and many Englishmen seem to have conceded to them the claim for feminine beauty over the old country and every other.
But no woman in all the world grows old as gracefully or beautifully as an Englishwoman! There is Lady Marchmount, for instance. She is nearly sixty ; she looks forty, has the voice of thirty, the manners of a matron, the heart of a girl; there is not a wrinkle in her face, nor a white hair in her head. And yet she does not, as do many American ladies of her age, dress as if she were twenty; she accepts the fact of her age, assumes the role of a matron who is a grandmother, and preserves, as she will to her last days, a charm of manner and a womanly grace, which is exceptionally the inheritance of Englishwomen.
"Don't go on our account, Mr. Chetwynd," said Mrs. Milbanke; " we only called because we were passing, and Dolly wondered what Mr. Forsyth was doing. We have been calling on Lady Marchmount."
"Many people there?" asked Philip.
"No, twenty or thirty," said Dolly. "The usual set: members of Parliament's wives, a prima donna engaged to sing, a thought reader, and several persons from the Italian Embassy."
"Many ladies?" asked Philip, his mind running on the woman of the opera.
