d with white roses is altogether
too festive to wear in the morning. The white gloves also would have
been sadly out of place.

What a comfort it would be to all concerned if the feminine reader
could take poor Cordelia one side and fix her up a bit! One could pat
the artistic disorder out of her beautiful yellow hair, help her out
of her hideous clothes into a grey tailor-made, with a shirt-waist of
mercerised white cheviot, put on a stock of the same material, give
her a "ready-to-wear" hat of the same trig-tailored quality, and, as
she passed out, hand her a pair of grey suede gloves which exactly
matched her gown.

Though grey would be more becoming, she might wear tan as a concession
to Mr. Stringer, who evidently likes yellow.

In the same book, we find a woman who gathers up her "yellow skirts"
and goes down a ladder. It might have been only a yellow taffeta
drop-skirt under tan etamine, but we must take his word for it, as we
did not see it and he did.

As the Chinese keep the rat tails for the end of the feast, the worst
clothes to be found in any book must come last by way of climax. Mr.
Dixon, in _The Leopard's Spots_, has easily outdone every other knight
of the pen who has entered the lists to portray women's clothes.
Listen to the inspired description of Miss Sallie's gown!

"She was dressed in a morning gown of a soft red material,
trimmed with old cream lace. The material of a woman's dress
had never interested him before. He knew calico from silk,
but beyond that he never ventured an opinion. To colour
alone he was responsive. This combination of red and creamy
white, _with the bodice cut low, showing the lines of her
beautiful white shoulders_, and the great mass of dark hair
rising in graceful curves from her full round neck,
heightened her beauty to an extraordinary degree.

"As she walked, the clinging folds of her dress, outlining
her queenly figure, seemed part of her very being, and to be
imbued with her soul. He was dazzled with the new revelation
of her power over him."

The fact that she goes for a ride later on, "dressed in pure white,"
sinks into insignificance beside this new and original creation of Mr.
Dixon's. A red morning gown, trimmed with cream lace, cut low enough
to show the "beautiful white shoulders"--ye gods and little fishes!
Where were the authorities, and why was not "Miss Sallie" taken to the
detentio