of her attendance at Church parade.  In the afternoon she will go to Tattersall’s to inspect horses.  Ascot could not continue without her, and Goodwood would crumble into ruins if she were absent.  This at least is her opinion, and thus the months flit by and leave her just as wise as they found her.  For she never reads a book, and illustrates by constant practice her belief that the fashionable intelligence of the Morning Post is a sufficient mental pabulum for a grown-up woman.

It is unnecessary to describe further the pursuits and occupations of the Hurlingham Girl.  With regard to her appearance and dress, it must be admitted that she displays considerable taste.  She is always neat, polished, perfectly groomed—­in a word, smart.  It may be that it takes nine tailors to make a man.  It is certain that it takes only one to make a well-dressed woman.  Yet she does not always, of course, wear tailor-made costumes, for on the Sundays that she spends on the river, her impertinently poised straw hats, her tasteful ribbons, her sailor’s knots, her collars, her manly shirts, and the general appropriateness of her dress, excite the envy of those who declare that they would not imitate her for worlds, merely because nature has made it impossible for them to be like her.  Handsome she is undoubtedly, with the beauty that comes of perfect health undisturbed by thoughts of the why and the wherefore, or by anticipations of a troublesome to-morrow.  Yet to the casual observer who beholds this admirably decorated creature, her conversation is disappointing.  She revels in slang.  Catch-words and phrases which are not called vulgar only because the better classes use them, come trippingly, but never with a pleasant effect from her lips.  Nor has she that sense of reticence which is said to have been the distinguishing mark of unmarried girlhood at some former period.  That she should talk frivolously on great subjects, if she talks on them at all, is only to be expected.  It would be well if her curiosity and her conversation left untouched delicate matters, the existence of which she may suspect but ought certainly to ignore.

After she has thus flaunted her brilliant health and beauty through several Seasons, she may begin to tire of an existence, which in spite of its general freedom, is subject to certain restraints.  She therefore decides to emancipate herself by submitting to a husband.  She finds no difficulty, with the assistance of her mother, in discarding the penniless subaltern who has devoted himself to her, and whom she has induced to believe that she preferred to the whole world.  Having received an offer from a gentleman of presentable looks and immense possessions, she promptly accepts it, and gains to her own surprise a considerable reputation for judgment and discretion.  It is quite possible that after a year or two of giddy married life she may decline gradually into a British Matron, respected alike on account of her increasing family, and her substantial appearance.