Of course, in such a city as London, to which the best of
everything, physical and other, gravitates, I could not but pass,
now and then, beautiful persons, who made me proud of those
grandes Anglaises aux joues rouges, whom the Parisiennes ridicule-
-and envy. But I could not help suspecting that their looks
showed them to be either country-bred, or born of country parents;
and this suspicion was strengthened by the fact that, when
compared with their mothers, the mother's physique was, in the
majority of cases, superior to the daughters'. Painful it was, to
one accustomed to the ruddy well-grown peasant girl, stalwart,
even when, as often, squat and plain, to remark the exceedingly
small size of the average young woman; by which I do not mean mere
want of height--that is a little matter--but want of breadth
likewise; a general want of those large frames, which indicate
usually a power of keeping strong and healthy not merely the
muscles, but the brain itself.

Poor little things. I passed hundreds--I pass hundreds every day-
-trying to hide their littleness by the nasty mass of false hair--
or what does duty for it; and by the ugly and useless hat which is
stuck upon it, making the head thereby look ridiculously large and
heavy; and by the high heels on which they totter onward, having
forgotten, or never learnt, the simple art of walking; their
bodies tilted forward in that ungraceful attitude which is called-
-why that name of all others?--a "Grecian bend;" seemingly kept on
their feet, and kept together at all, in that strange attitude, by
tight stays which prevented all graceful and healthy motion of the
hips or sides; their raiment, meanwhile, being purposely misshapen
in this direction and in that, to hide--it must be presumed--