t particularly
handsome in any case, does not look attractive in the old slippers, I
acknowledge. Ball would never ask me to sit for a model, nor would Hunt
ever wish to paint my pedal proportions, should either see me thus.
But--think of the luxury!--My dear Madam, please to put out that elegant
little foot of yours,--only the foot,--just as it looks, when you take
your afternoon promenade, and all the world admires its beauty. Thank
you! What a bewitching little thing it is! How that snug little boot
fits it like a glove! Why do you shrink so? I scarcely touched it. Oh,
it pinches! I should never dream it; it looks faultless. Is it possible,
that, as you sail along with flowing skirts, the very object which the
world admires is the source of exquisite pain? When Frank used to greet
you with an elaborate bow, could it be that the charming smile you
returned was half grimace, as you leaned somewhat carelessly on that
narrow sole? I can't tell where it pinches; but were I permitted to see
the soft, tender flesh--You would never permit it? And so you go along,
gracefully holding up those snowy skirts, and showing to the world the
lovely outside, while you inwardly wince and groan over every pebble.
Don't you go home, Madam, and hasten to get off that instrument of
torture, and luxuriate in the freedom you obtain thereby? Now Ball and
Hunt, when they see those charming little booted beauties, would be
enraptured to reproduce them in marble and oils. Yet, after all, are not
my old splayfooted slippers much more desirable affairs?--No?--You are
willing to endure the pain, because of the looks. Thank your stars, my
dear Madam, that you have the choice, and that, when you get into that
nice little boudoir, you can exchange the suffering of show for the
comfort of privacy. Did Frank ever know how they pinched? Didn't he
think, that, when you unlaced them, there came out a tiny, comely foot,
as plump and fair as a baby's? Frank never knew--till after the
wedding--what a squeezing and pinching and doubling and twisting they
had undergone, when they were peeping out under the flounces for his
special eye. Do you ever wish that you had worn something which had
disgusted Frank at the outset? If so, my dear Madam, I wouldn't exchange
my old splay slippers for those No. Twos of yours.

Ah, we bear many sorts of coverings over the long and weary road of
life! I know of a pair of tiny shoes which you have got carefully
treasured up in s