The Irish standard., 1889-02-09
''ENCLISH, YOU KNOW. "
What "The Duchess" Has to Say
About the Modern English
Girl.
is NOT BEAUTIFUL.
Frequency Of Scandals-Love No Con-
sideartion IN the Matter
of Marriage.

sideartion IN the Matter
of Marriage.
at twelve years of age the English
girl ceases to be a child. She flngs
from her the last lingering bonds Of in
fancy and becomes mass of overween
ing vanity, unbounded self-confdence
in a word, a consummate little prig
SO strong is her aplomb, her belief in
herself, that should chance send her
into the drawing room in the absence
OF her mother, she would be quite capa-
ble of taking upon her own youthful
shoulders the duties of that matron and
entertaining crowd of afternoon vis-
itors with calmness hardly to be ri.
vailed.
To be grown up is her one ambition.
Indeed, from the hour she first
finds her tongue equal TO ber calls upon
it, she pines and longs for the time OF
emancipation, the hour that shall see
her own mistress, notably the hour that
shall see her successfully launched upon
the sea of matrimony.
At this age she begins to 60 to her
FIRST parties-children's at homes.
Here shs speedily learns, as it by IN
stinct, but in reality through an inher-
tied desire for the choice morsals to be
drawn from the flesh pots of Egypt, y
what are the best to be had on the sup
per table, and who, too, are the most
desirable partners for Quadrllles. This
little fellow with his flaxen head and
handsome face and merry, honest laugh,
is only second son, therefore, in spite
Of his manifold charms, is not to be en- :
couraged. There is no prestige to be
gained by dance with HIM, no delic
ious sense of having trlumphed oyer her
little girl friends, with the hope oil
pointing their attention to the fact on
the morrow. MOI That lumpy boy
over there, with the heavy brows and
'stoo, too solid" nose is the one for her.
Repulsiye though his features be and
clumsy his attempt at dancing, still he
is the eldest son CT an earl, a little lord
ling in his own right, and heir to a
mighty rental. So little miss smlrks
and smiles OF him, and plays off her
pretty airs and graces, aud tlirss her
fan with a verva that would not have
disgraced the reigning beauty of the
season, and 80 far captiyates the heavy
poy that the coveted dance is hers and
several more later on.
At fifteen. in spite OF the structures
of the school room (that modern ''don-
jon keep to which most well-bred En-
glish girls are consigned from tkeir
tenth to their sixteenth year,) she
knows pretty nearly all she ought and
ought not to know. The small Gimp
ses offered her of the outside world
have been vigorously made use Of, to
such an extent, indeed, that she is hard
" nnprepared for the fght that lies be-
fore her once she has passed the Ru-
bicon that lies between her and the
happy moment that will permit her en-
tree into the huge market Of Society" "
Those juvenile "aU homes' have been
an education in themselves. The oc-
casional peeps over the banisters as ma
mas guests are passing from the draw
ing room to the diuing-room and back
again; the surreptitious reading Of
novels unknown to Fraxlein; the words
caught now and again about so-and-so
aud so-and-so, when mamma and papa
nave grown III cautious and forgetful of
that sound old adage that ''little pitch.
ers have long ears"--all these have
been stored up and made mach of and
pondered over in secret until the great
story of life reads plain to her.
at seventeen she steps into the great
arena not altogether unsuspicious, as
we have seen. of what lies before her.
The 6rst immature thought is now we'll
grown, and may be handled without
fear as occasion arises, that first en-
crossing desire to make a good mar
riaRe.
The English girl is by no means SO
beautiful as one IS led to believe. Now
and again a real beauty appears, and is
worshipped with a fervor that suggests
the idea of such saleable articles be,
ing few and far between. The aver
age girl is generally well grown, well
fed to look at, and often very fair-that
is, with blue eyes and daxen locks.
This hair is sure to be all her own, and
the eyes are large and limped, but, as
rule, fatally expresionless. There is
none of the tenderness, the gayety, the
espleglerle that disting guishes the eyes of
the irish girl; her English SISTERS orbs
SHINE softly. mildly, indeed, but shine
on all alike.
lsuppose no girlin any land, takin g