“AS IN A MIRROR." 
VERY LADY knows the purpose of a mirror. 
The necessities of her nature and of civilisa¬ 
tion compel its constant use. Many ladies 
shrink from the common term, a 4 lady of fashion/ 
but where is there one who is not so, more or less ? 
The constantly changing seasons bring constantly 
changing fashions, and whatever these may be, every 
lady must, more or less, adopt them. “ Better be 
out of the world than out of the fashion"” is her 
standing rule. There is a sort of tyranny in it which 
she rarely dares to defy ; it may outrage her sense of 
taste, but she stoops to it, then casts aside next 
season “the hideous thing she wore last year.” And 
yet, while a lady is largely in the hands of her milli¬ 
ner and dressmaker, and allows herself to be dressed 
after the fashion, she is more than a ‘‘dummy”; 
there is an individuality which is all her own. As 
she stands before her mirror she insists upon having 
a prevailing colour, which, in her own idea, suits her 
complexion, a combination, a harmony of colours 
which suits her taste, and all shapes and fashions are 
so modified as to satisfy what she deems to be most 
becoming to her. The mirror reveals her sense of 
the fitness of things. 
But does a lady know when she has at last 
pleased herself that she has done much more than 
