The sun., 1918-09-01

from under the br1m OF her sOIt Wn1te
hat" and then again she was Railways
smartly dressed, but tonight she had out
done herself. From her trim blue satin
slippers" Shippers again, you see) "to
the demure little band Of blue at her throat
she was more ,enchantingly fresh than
ever
There's something about that "band of
blue at her throat" that doesn't ring true.
You made that up, Mr.. Poole. Mrs.
Poole, whom | have often seen, couldn't
have told you to tie demure blue band
around Eleanor's throat, because Mrs.
Poole answers to the first phrase in that
paragraph-she is always "smartly
dressed Better get her TO edit your
heroine's neekwear after this if you want
TO be a real realist.
H. G. Wells Is Beau Nash.
Of all the English novelists the ON
niscient Wells writes best about women's
clothes, yet he does it in bold maseu-
way hC UOCoh
reach, certainly He aienates a great
deal of feminine sympathy from Isabel
Rivers (Of The New Machiarell) when
he puts her in blue smoek and has her
call Remington Master" Once upon a
time 1 went back stage after the concert
of popular barytone and listened to the
women erowding around him and saying,
30 dear Maestro, you were wonderful"
and "Dear Maestro" this and Dear
Maestro" that, and the poor man stood
there looking hunted and unhappy
though / suspect that he would have been
furious if no one had taken the trouble
to come round and Maestro him at all
and it was all somehow fakerish and
cheap. So with Isabel Rivers's smock.
But it is almost the only sartorial lapse
of which Mr.. Wells is guilty.
Classic is his description of Lady
Beach Mandarin's hat, seen from the
back, at Lady Harman's trial-"Ap un-
easy object like the smashed remains Of
a colossal box of bonbons riding out a
gale" And Lady Harman's dinner dress,
"Black and gold with just touch of Grim
son in her hair and Lady Harman's furs,
those heavy, soft, rich furs that Mr.. Wells
loves so much that he gives them to all
his heroines. Daphne, in Marriage,
faunts her prosperous black velvet with
a huge black muff before Marjorie when
TraffOrd's success had not yet been
achieved. Marjorie herself adores lovely
clothes and bought them wisely Mr. Wells
convinees US. Margaret Remington had
furs, too, and dressed very well in soft
blues and lavenders, while Altiora Bailey
had "a gypsy splendor of black and red
and silver all her own"
Her Well Churned Hair.
Mr.. Wells knows something about Jew
els, too-but then, what doesn't Mr.. Wells
know abouti Listen to what he says of
Lady Marayne: "a little diamond buckle
on black velvet band glittered between
the two masses of butter colored hair that
flowed back from her forehead
her shapely little shoulders and her
shapely little arms came decidedly but
pleasantly out of softness and sparkle of
white and silver and old rose Mr.. Wells
doesn't hesitate to combine colors, you
see. Amanda of the dusky hair put on
cloak that had "a touch of the pirate about
it" and stuck light knitted cap of scar
let on her head.
Arnold Bennett is more detailed than
Mr. Wells, but he does not appeal to the
imagination. 1t is impossible to read,
without pain, his description of Sophia
Scales's first Partisan costume. at was
of pale blue taffetas, striped in darker
blue, with the eorsage cut in basques and
the underskirt of similar taffetas, but
unstriped The effect of the ornate over
skirt falling on the plain underskirt with
its small double volant was, she thought,
adorable. The waist was higher than any
she had had before and the crinoline ex-
pansive Tied around her head with 4
large bow and hying blue ribbons under