fluence on the whole dress problem as
English women look at it.

Not to mince matters, we may as well confess that _les Americaines_ do
gown themselves with superlative taste. Our peeresses and visitors
from the States know what to wear and how to wear it; they show so
much tact in their choice of colors, they put on their gay gowns and
hats with such a completeness of touch, and display so much instinct
for style in the choice and use of small etceteras, that it is idle to
say we English have not been compelled to notice and admire.

If imitation is truly the sincerest flattery, as some ancient wiseacre
said years ago, then there is pretty clear evidence daily afforded to
prove that we are complimenting our American sisters by slowly
adopting their ideas of dress.

More and more each season does Paris send us the sort of gown and
hatpin, belt and handkerchief and hair ornament, that goes to New
York, and more and more is the saying, "She dresses quite like an
American woman," accepted as a kindly comment, wherever it is offered.

A general impression, also, is prevailing to the effect that one
reason why our American cousins wear their fine frocks with such good
results is because they hold their heads high and their backs flat and
straight. There is even now, in London, a vastly popular _corsetiere_
who does not hesitate to recommend herself as the only artiste in town
who can persuade any form, stout or lean, to assume at once the exact
outlines of the admired American figure.

The Duchess of Roxburghe, Mrs. Kennard and the Countess of Suffolk are
all very fair examples, in our eyes, of the high perfection of line to
which the feminine form divine can and does attain in America; for all
these women hold themselves with the most superlative grace, wear
gowns that would make Solomon in all his glory feel envious, and help
to maintain the now fixed belief in England that all Americans are
tall, straight, slender and born with a capacity for wearing diamond
tiaras with as much ease as straw hats.

It would not be fair, though, to lay too much of the social success of
King Edward's fair new subjects and visitors wholly at their wardrobe
doors, for the two most influential and prominent American women just
now in London are neither of them titled, nor do they place too much
stress on the gorgeousness of their frocks and frills.

Both Mrs. Arthur Paget--who was Miss Minnie Stevens, of New York--and
Mrs. Ronalds are