ECONOMY IN RIDING DRESS. 197 



to take good care of your things when you have them, 

 is one to which you will do well to take heed. Negli- 

 gence concerning the guardianship of one's wearing apparel 

 generally proceeds from one of two causes : either from a 

 natural carelessness of disposition, which leads to all sorts 

 of shiftless and untidy ways ; or to a foolish desire — if 

 among wealthy or showy people — to affect an air of in- 

 difference concerning cost. I have seen examples of both 

 these dispositions ; a girl who just stepped out of her riding- 

 gear, and left it there behind her, habit wet and muddy, hat 

 spotted w^ith rain, veil never folded, boots flung anywhere, 

 whip and gloves in different corners, sometimes in different 

 rooms, or on the hall table, to be certainly missing w^hen 

 next wanted to be used : a sort of girl who kept jam-pots 

 in her press, and matches in her work-box, and who I'ooted 

 for everything she wanted, precisely as a dog does when 

 burying a bone. 



On the w^hole, however, I am not quite certain whether 

 she is not preferable to one of the vainer sort, who strides 

 over sharp stones, and plunges in and out of muddy pools 

 w^hen there is any distance to be w^alked, rather than have 

 it supposed that she is picking her way in order to save 

 her boots ; who eats bread-and-butter without removing her 

 gloves, for reasons of a similar sort ; and who puts on a 

 smile of unconcern when her hostess's lap-dog makes a 

 meal off her whip-lash, or mistakes the handle of it for 

 a bone. 



Few things are more to be avoided than a studied care- 

 fulness about matters of costume — when others are by, — 



