on being taken for what she is not. Hence the preposterous bustles,
the audacious flatness, the ridiculous fulness, the hideous outlines
ingeniously displayed, to which a whole town will become accustomed,
but which are so astounding when a provincial woman makes her
appearance in Paris or among Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim,
showed it off to excess, and never knew a dull moment when it became
ridiculous; when, reduced by the dull weariness of her life, she
looked like a skeleton in clothes; and her friends, seeing her every
day, did not observe the gradual change in her appearance.

This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of
marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the
town is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when
people meet every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de
la Baudraye, she loses her color, it is scarcely noticed; or, again,
if she flushes a little, that is intelligible and interesting. A
little neglect is thought charming, and her face is so carefully
studied, so well known, that slight changes are scarcely noticed, and
regarded at last as "beauty spots." When Dinah ceased to have a new
dress with a new season, she seemed to have made a concession to the
philosophy of the place.

It is the same with matters of speech, choice of words and ideas, as
it is with matters of feeling. The mind can rust as well as the body
if it is not rubbed up in Paris; but the thing on which provincialism
most sets its stamp is gesture, gait, and movement; these soon lose
the briskness which Paris constantly keeps alive. The provincial is
used to walk and move in a world devoid of accident or change, there
is nothing to be avoided; so in Paris she walks on as raw recruits do,
never remembering that there may be hindrances, for there are none in