It is a well-known fact that
dress plays a very important part in the lives of most women and
even the most sensible cannot help owning sometimes how much
happiness they owe to a becoming gown, gracefully arranged hair,
or a bonnet which brings out the best points in their faces and puts
them in a good humor. A great man was once heard to say that
what first attracted him to his well-beloved wife was seeing her in
a white muslin dress with a blue shawl on the chair behind her.
The dress caught his eye, and, stopping to admire that, the wearer's
intelligent conversation interested his mind, and in time, the
woman's sweetness won his heart. It is not the finest dress which
does the most execution, I fancy, but that which best interprets
individual taste and character. Wise people understand this, and
everybody is more influenced by it than they know, perhaps. Polly
was not very wise, but she felt that every one about her found
something more attractive than usual in her and modestly
attributed Tom's devotion, Sydney's interest, and Frank's
undisguised admiration, to the new bonnet or, more likely, to that
delightful combination of cashmere, silk, and swan's-down, which,
like Charity's mantle, seemed to cover a multitude of sins in other
people's eyes and exalt the little music teacher to the rank of a
young lady.
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