A
slight shade of complexion, more brilliant than her
years promised, subjected my friend amongst strangers
to the suspicion of having stretched her foreign
habits as far as the prudent touch of the
rouge. But it was a calumny; for when telling
or listening to an interesting and affecting story,
I have seen her colour come and go as if it played
on the cheek of eighteen.
Her hair, whatever its former deficiencies, was
now the most beautiful white that time could bleach,
and was disposed with some degree of pretension,
though in the simplest manner possible, so as to
appear neatly smoothed under a cap of Flanders
lace, of an old-fashioned, but, as I thought, of a
very handsome form, which undoubtedly has a
name, and I would endeavour to recur to it, if I
thought it would make my description a bit more
intelligible. I think I have heard her say these
favourite caps had been her mother's, and had come
in fashion with a peculiar kind of wig used by the
gentlemen about the time of the battle of Ramillies.
The rest of her dress was always rather costly
and distinguished, especially in the evening. A
silk or satin gown of some colour becoming her
age, and of a form, which, though complying to a
certain degree with the present fashion, had always
a reference to some more distant period, was garnished
with triple ruffles; her shoes had diamond
buckles, and were raised a little at heel, an advantage
which, possessed in her youth, she alleged her
size would not permit her to forego in her old age.
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