If you have paid strict attention to what has gone before you will not
come under this heading or, to be sure, under any other heading I may
choose to name.
There on the sidelines is a gauche maiden whom we shall call Miss
Sunflower. She is the second cousin of Madam Recamier, our Hostess. How
she got here is problematic. Whether she is from the country or not I
cannot say definitely. Probably so, because country girls not being
faced with as keen competition as city girls are not as careful as they
might be. But their state is usually only temporary. They feel their
way slowly at first and then one fine day when they have observed their
fill, blossom out into most amazing creatures, clever, vivacious and
often very beautiful.
At the present time, however, we are assuming that Miss Sunflower is
just in that seedling stage when one is not sure whether she will grow
into a gigantic brownfaced flower, a sweet pea or an ordinary castor
bean. Her face still retains that muddy look of one who has spent
a lifetime without the proper skin treatment. That very tan which
she has acquired may prove her fortune later but to date she has not
utilized it properly.
And to make matters worse, she has daubed her face with a perfectly
white powder over which, not under, which is the proper method, she has
put a magenta shade of rouge. And there is that little ring around her
neck which looks like dirt but which is really only a little tanned
line.
And the dress! What an interesting specimen. It is one the style of
which was in vogue no less than ten years ago. Not satisfied with
the simple base on which the dress was constructed, and which could
have been made quite passable, she has be-frilled and be-flowered and
be-ruffled it almost out of recognition. She has heard somewhere that
ostentation is the secret of social success.
When she speaks we are quite amazed to discover that she has a very
mellow voice with an undertone of warm richness to it. She probably
developed her vocal cords by hog calling or some such bucolic endeavor.
We find too that she is droll and that she knows animals quite well.
That will eventually be called the secret of her success; the fact that
she knows animals and can talk about them intelligently not to say
humorously. Nor is it at all odd that knowing animals she should be
entirely ignorant of men.
Now the best way for Miss Sunflower to commercialize her abilities,
put them on the market and make them eminently salable, would be to
begin on her dress and her skin. The skin as it is is very nice and she
should not attempt to bleach it. The thing to do would be to even it
up a little about the neck, cleanse it with some good cream, use only
a little rouge on her cheeks and lots of lipstick and then a brunette
powder on top.
Her dress, as I said, had a very simple base, in this case a tight
basque and a very long full skirt, the whole in salmon pink taffeta.
Now that as a base isn’t so bad, but our little friend has chosen to
run quite wild. She has ruffled it around the lower hem with pink
tulle and around the neck she has a perfect mountain mist of the same
material. About the waist she has put a series of rather large bouquets.
In the first place she should not wear too much frilly-frally; hers
should be a severe exterior. We should not concern ourselves with her
for very long, however, as she is only a rather vital maiden in transit
and is at the moment among the wallflowers.