[Illustration: _Milliner_]
where little Caroline again saw something to excite her laughter, and
to call forth the smile of her father. A lady, long past the prime of
life, but dressed in a style of girlish fashion, with short sleeves
which shewed her shrivelled arms, and still shorter petticoats, was
viewing herself with much complacency, as she placed on her head,
the grey hairs of which were concealed by the flowing tresses of an
auburn wig, a large straw hat, loaded with flowers and feathers, and
only fit for a young woman under thirty.
"Surely, mamma," cried Emily, "that old lady can never intend to buy
that hat? It is too gay for one of her years."
"She certainly does," said Maria, "and I dare say believes that it will
make her look twenty years younger than she is."
"She thinks wrong then, sister," exclaimed Theodore. "For, unless she
can hide the wrinkles in her face and neck, and the loss of her teeth,
and the leanness of her body, she will only the more expose her age, by
dressing so ridiculously."
"Your remark is a just one, my boy," said his father. "Old age of
itself is respectable, and calls for the attention and veneration of
youth, but when it apes the dress and follies of the latter, it only
excites the sneer of contempt, and the laugh of ridicule."
"From contemplating the weakness of the human mind," said Mrs.
Durnford, "let us now turn towards that which has the power of
strengthening and invigorating the human body. What would our
physicians and other medical gentlemen do, without the aid of the