dly can they see whether the Cashmere shawl of some passing
dame owes its rich but sober tints to an Indian loom, or to the fabric
of M. Ternaux, who so skilfully imitates the exotic luxury; and what a
difference does the circumstance make in their estimation of the
wearer! The beauty of a woman, however great it may be, excites less
envy in the minds of her own sex in France, than does the possession of
a fine Cashmere, or a _garniture_ of real Russian sable--objects of
general desire to every Parisian _belle_.

I met few handsome women to-day, but these few were remarkably
striking. In Kensington Gardens I should have encountered thrice as
many; but there I should also have seen more plain ones than here. Not
that Englishwomen _en masse_ are not better-looking than the French,
but that these last are so skilful in concealing defects, and revealing
beauties by the appropriateness and good taste in their choice of
dress, that even the plain cease to appear so; and many a woman looks
piquant, if not pretty, at Paris, thanks to her _modiste_, her
_couturiere_, and her _cordonnier_, who, without their "artful aid,"
would be plain indeed.

It is pleasant to behold groups of well-dressed women walking, as only
French women ever do walk, nimbly moving their little feet _bien
chausse_, and with an air half timid, half _espiegle_, that elicits the
admiration they affect to avoid. The rich and varied material of their
robes, the pretty _chapeaux_, from which peep forth such coquettish
glances, the modest assurance--for their self-possession amounts
precisely to that--and the ease and elegance of their carriage, give
them attractions we might seek for in vain in the women of other
countries, however superior these last may be in beauty of complexion
or roundness of _contour_, for which French women in general are not
remarkable.

The men who frequent the gardens of the Tuileries are of a different
order to those met with in the Luxembourg. They consist chiefly of
military men and young fashionables, who go to admire the pretty women,
and elderly and middle-aged ones, who meet in knots and talk politics
with all the animation peculiar to their nation. Children do not abound
in the walks here, as in the Luxembourg; and those to be seen are
evidently brought by some fond mother, proud of exhibiting her boys and
girls in their smart dresses.

The Tuileries Gardens, so beautiful in summer, are not without their
attractions in win