the contrary, rise a half-hour earlier to curl or wave; our spirit-
lamps leak into our dressing-bags, and our beauty is decidedly
damaged by damp or hot weather. Most women's hair is a mere
covering to the scalp, growing out of the head, or pinned on, as
the case may be. Egeria's is a glory like Eve's; it is expressive,
breathing a hundred delicate suggestions of herself; not tortured
into frizzles, or fringes, or artificial shapes, but winding its
lustrous lengths about her head, just high enough to show the
beautiful nape of her neck, "where this way and that the little
lighter-coloured irreclaimable curls run truant from the knot,--
curls, half curls, root curls, vine ringlets, wedding-rings,
fledgling feathers, tufts of down, blown wisps,--all these wave, or
fall, or stray, loose and downward in the form of small, silken
paws, hardly any of them thicker than a crayon shading, cunninger
than long, round locks of gold to trick the heart."

At one o'clock we lifted the covers of our luncheon-baskets.

"Aren't they the tidiest, most self-respecting, satisfying things!"
exclaimed Egeria, as she took out her plate, and knife, and fork,
opened her Japanese napkin, set in dainty order the cold fowl and
ham, the pat of butter, crusty roll, bunch of lettuce, mustard and
salt, the corkscrew, and, finally, the bottle of ale. "I cannot
bear to be unpatriotic, but compare this with the ten minutes for
refreshments at an American lunch-counter, its baked beans, and
pies, and its cream cakes and doughnuts under glass covers. I
don't believe English people are as good as we are; they can't be;
they're too comfortable. I wonder if the little discomforts of
living in America, the dissatisfaction and incompetency of
servants, and all the other problems, will work out for the nation