gay capital; but the bare notion of wearing such would positively shock
a lady of fashion at Paris, as much as it would an English one, to
appear in a hat manufactured in Cranbourn Alley.

Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates.

Having noticed the extravagance of the prices, it is but fair to remark
the elegance and good taste of the millinery to be found at Monsieur
Herbault's. His _chapeaux_ look as if made by fairy fingers, so fresh,
so light, do they appear; and his caps seem as if the gentlest sigh of
a summer's zephyr would bear them from sight, so aerial is their
texture, and so delicate are the flowers that adorn them, fresh from
the _ateliers_ of Natier, or Baton.

Beware, O ye uxorious husbands! how ye bring your youthful brides to
the dangerous atmosphere of Paris, while yet in that paradise of fools
ycleped the honey-moon, ere you have learned to curve your brows into a
frown, or to lengthen your visages at the sight of a long bill.

In that joyful season, when having pleased your eyes and secured your
hearts, your fair brides, with that amiability which is one of the
peculiar characteristics of their sex, are anxious to please all the
world, and from no other motive than that _your_ choice should be
admired, beware of entering Paris, except _en passant_. Wait until you
have recovered that firmness of character which generally comes back to
a Benedict after the first year of his nuptials, before you let your
wives wander through the tempting mazes of the _magasins de modes_ of
this intoxicating city.

And you, fair dames, "with stinted sums assigned," in the shape of