PARK AND EOAD RIDING. 49 



daintily out of a cab, as though she were quite 

 mistress of the situation. Ye gods ! What a 

 get up ! I was positively electrified. Her 

 habit — certainly well made — was of bright 

 blue cloth, with worked frills at the throat 

 and wrists. She wore a brilliant knot of 

 scarlet ribbon at her neck, and a huge bouquet 

 in her button-hole. Her hat was a silk one, 

 set right on the back of her head, with a velvet 

 rosettte and steel buckle in front, and a long 

 veil of grey gauze streaming out behind. 

 When we add orange gloves, and a riding- whip 

 with a gaudy tassel appended to it, you have 

 the details of a costume at once singular and 

 unique. 



I did not at first know whether to get a 

 sudden attack of the measles or the toothache, 

 and send her out with my groom to escort her, 

 but discarding the thought as ill-natured, I 

 compromised matters by bringing her to my 

 own room, and effecting .alterations in her 

 toilet which soon gave her a more civihsed 

 appearance, I set the hat straight upon her 

 head, and bound it securely in its place, 

 removed from it the gauze and buckle, and 



4 



