Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-27

PARKS. June Is, 1905.
"'HERE are many women who
account elusiveness the great
est of all the feminine charms.
delightful woman whom I
know here IN Paris in the
course of a fiattered life received the
compliment not long ago. which she ranks
greatest among very large number, on
the quality of her elusiveness. Il seems
20 me that the man who paid II may
have been thinking of the rainbow spirit
always just beyond mortal grasp. as a
recent writer has expressed it In ore of
his stories. the IDEAL 1 confess that I
cannot wholly overcome the feeling that
there might have been other readings.
However. she was best pleased with that
pretty feeling, which certainly lacked the
direciness of some of the others. One
man had told her she was beautiful, and
she replied placidly. Il agree with you"
And afterward, What else?' He. lit
tie annoyed at the effronte-y of the
question retorted Isn't that enough"
For fool she said. but j am not a
fool. If I were 1 should be perfectly con-
tent with being beautiful. WHAT a pity
1t is l am not" Well. perhaps 1t would
be nice 10 he perfectly lovely and per-
fectly content. but dull. don't you think?
And what about getting old?
The Elusive Quality in Dress.
To apply the quality OF elusiveness to
dress will be more TO our purpose, and
II is, by the way. a very important mat
ter II has 10 do with the so.l of ones
attire for clothes have q sort of soul,
am sure you will admit, and women who
do not concede the point come to grief
sartorially sooner or later. That 1t does
not always rest with the wearer OF the
Clothes one knows right we'll If she
alone possessed the soul she would be
able to impart il to all her belongings.
The very rare woman can do this. but
you do not meet her more than once or
twice in a lifetime, and / have never met
her-I mean the woman who looks equal
~ we'll iii everything and anything, the
one who is always I'm the picture. OF
the occasion" always in dressing fit
wherever one NAV meet her. abroad. at
home. night, day. all the rest of 1t. 1t is
no use trying TO write about the domi-
mating personality of woman IN an article
of this kind because II would not be of
much use TO those who 90 lot possess it.
and l always want to he of use. Nor
would it oblige the women who nave IT
already, because one can do very little
more for them.
The eusiveness that lies in clothes. by
the same token. is more subtle quality.
one at least less thrashed out In print
and one which opens out such wide
field that IL is impossible to do anything
but repeat others remarks. because there
is so much TO be said tl-at everybody can
not say dnNti1lIS ABOUT H. WEolo oHCC
on the clothes that liked you and the
clothes that did not. There you get one
aspect OF the soul. or perhaps I might
say the temper of clothes. And there are
certain colors, contemporary has
pointed cut which look we'll In silks, but
nbominabe in WOOlens. most possible
I'm smooth-faced stuffs and beyond the
pale in rough, and so on
Why one color should be beautiful and
vet dowdy, and another tremendously
smart but at the same time extremely
unbecoming is one of those problems to
which the answer seems very simple until
YOU try to give il. And again. why GER
tain ensembles sometimes quite indie
scribable. are so charming as to remain
fixed on the tablets of the mind forever
and a day is beyond ones powers to ex-
plain 4 memory of a woman coming
down road in Normandy last summer
rises before me-not very pretty woman
or one wearing anything particularly
wonderful or that one can put down on
paper''-a brightish dark blue linen dress
with hat to match and big veil
thrown back, long yellow channels gloves
and clouded amber hatplns. Really there
was nothing 70 excuse the impression re-
manning in such a marked manner. but IL
does remain and the elusive quality must
be congratulated since there seems little
else to praise
Youth has almost all its own way, but
not this gift. Youth Is so frank, So con-
fessed. so impossible TO conceal. There
are times when il is more subtle to be