b and participate bravely in that fearful
fight on the ledge.

Whence, oh whence, comes this fondness for lawn? Are not organdies,
dimities, and embroidered muslins fully as becoming to the women who
trip daintily through the pages of men's books? Lawn has been a back
number for many a weary moon, and still we read of it!

"When in doubt, lead trumps," might well be paraphrased thus: "When in
doubt, put her into white lawn!" Even "J. P. M.," that gentle spirit
to whom so many hidden things were revealed, sent his shrewish "Kate"
off for a canter through the woods in a white gown, and, if memory
serves, it was lawn!

In _The Master_, Mr. Zangwill describes Eleanor Wyndwood as "the
radiant apparition of a beautiful woman in a shimmering amber gown,
from which her shoulders rose dazzling."

So far so good. But a page or two farther on, that delightful minx,
Olive Regan, wears "a dress of soft green-blue cut high, with yellow
roses at the throat." One wonders whether Mr. Zangwill ever really saw
a woman in any kind of a gown "with yellow roses at the throat," or
whether it is but the slip of an overstrained fancy. The fact that he
has married since writing this gives a goodly assurance that by this
time he knows considerably more about gowns.

Still there is always a chance that the charm may not work, for Mr.
Arthur Stringer, who has been reported as being married to a very
lovely woman, takes astonishing liberties in _The Silver Poppy_:

"She floated in before Reppellier, buoyant, smiling, like a
breath of open morning itself, a confusion of mellow
autumnal colours in her wine-coloured gown, and a hat of
roses and mottled leaves.

"Before she had as much as drawn off her gloves--and they
were always the most spotless of white gloves--she glanced
about in mock dismay, and saw that the last of the righting
up had already been done."

Later, we read that the artist pinned an American Beauty upon her
gown, then shook his head over the colour combination and took it
off. If the American Beauty jarred enough for a man to notice it, the
dress must have been the colour of claret, or Burgundy, rather than
the clear soft gold of sauterne.

This brings us up with a short turn before the hat. What colour were
the roses? Surely they were not American Beauties, and they could not
have been pink. Yellow roses would have been a fright, so they must
have been white ones, and a hat covere