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ROMANCE AND REALITY.

of a heroine all white muslin and simplicity, whose ringlets never come out of curl, and who puts a few natural flowers, which make a point of not fading, in her hair."

"I have a particular antipathy to white muslin; and I think natural flowers like natural pleasures—their beauty is soon past. No; I prefer a noble confidence in your milliner using your own taste only in selection; and also that confidential intercourse between yourself and your clothes as if you were accustomed to each other. Do not take up your boa as if it were the rope with which you meant to hang yourself; nor wrap your shawl round you as if it were your shroud. But you, Miss Arundel, understand well what I mean."

There was a very graceful emphasis on the you; but Emily certainly blushed deeper than the occasion required. For the first time, Lady Alicia was petitioned to keep the carriage waiting half an hour for "one more waltz;" and "Oh, such a delightful ball, sir!" was Emily's account to Mr. Delawarr the next morning at breakfast.

If, as a pretty little French woman once observed, a young lady's delight in a ball is