he young and the
old have each their privileges. The one must not dress like the other.
Though we have seen some who have been foolish enough to forget the
years that have passed, and cannot realise the fact that they are no
longer young, and vie with the youngest in the youthfulness of their
attire, we do not, we admit, often find the young endeavouring to
make themselves look older than they are. One who has thought much and
written well on this subject says, "Doubtless if there were any way of
making old people young, either in looks or anything else, it would
be a delightful invention; but meanwhile juvenile dressing is the last
road we should recommend them to take."

In conclusion, let every woman bear in mind that dress denotes
character, that there is a symbolism in dress which they who have
studied the matter can read without difficulty.

HOW TO CARVE.

* * * * *

THE DINNER-TABLE.

So long as the taste for dinners _a la Russe_ shall continue, it
does not seem absolutely necessary for lady or gentleman to take
the trouble to learn to carve. But the idle and wasteful fashion of
employing servants to cut up your food after their own fancy, and of
sitting round a board bereft of all appearance of dinner except the
salt-cellars and glasses, to watch flowers and fresh fruit decay
and droop in the midst of the various smells of the hot meats, while
waiting to receive such portions as your attendant chooses to bestow
on you, is so opposed to the social, hospitable, and active habits
of an English gentleman that it must soon pass away, and the tempting
spread on the generous board, pleasant to the eye as well as to the
taste, resume its place.

Dexterity, grace, and tact in carving and distributing the delicate
morsels of the dish, have been many a man's passport into popularity.
Nor is this accomplishment unworthy of cultivation in the elegant
woman; affording a pretext, too, for that assistance of some favoured
neighbour which men love to offer to the fair.

The number of guests to be invited to constitute an agreeable dinner
is no longer restricted to the old rule of never less than the
number of the Graces, nor more than that of the Muses. Large tables,
well-trained servants, dinners _a la Russe_, and a greater facility
in furnishing the viands for the table than formerly existed, have
enabled families to extend the number received, and dinners of from
twelve to twen