for his own use. We can never find a perfectly fitting shoe in a ready made shoe store. That is readily granted. Neither can we have one made on an old last. The feet of no two persons are exactly alike, so no last can fit them both.
Thus, too, a foot always shows its own delicate natural form.
Not that we urge any departure from the prevailing style of shoe. If carefully fitted, they will answer very well, although some female reformers have declared their independence of them. A distinguished woman who not long since returned from Europe, told a friend of ours, of an interview with Miss Florence Nightingale. During the conversation she could not help but notice the singular shape of that eminent lady's foot. She had never heard that Miss Nightingale was lame, or mal-formed, but certainly something was the matter. Her curiosity prompted her to inquire of some mutual friend, who at once explained that Miss Nightingale, despising the modern instrument of torture vended by fashionable shoemakers, is accustomed to plant her stocking foot firmly on a piece of leather, draw the outline of the figure it forms, and have her shoe made to correspond exactly with it!
The heel should neither be very high nor narrow, as this throws the body forward, impairs the gracefulness of the carriage, and is also apt to predispose the ankle to "turn" or give way, which is both awkward
