Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/71

Rh happy, only really existed amid such scenes; and near her the young metropolitan beauty, brilliant in appearance, but in feeling almost as old and heartless as her companion; while not far off could be seen the belle of some small city, blushing, beautiful, trembling, showing plainly, in her innocent countenance, how unused she was to such scenes of splendor. Among the gentlemen were some celebrated over the whole country for their talents—men of high station and ability; others widely known on account of their great wealth or their energy in business; and occasionally one could see in the crowd a few well-dressed, handsome gentlemen, apparently intellectual, exceedingly agreeable in conversation, and polite in manner, yet mostly avoided by ladies and gentlemen. These are the fortune-hunters, many of whom every season congregate at Saratoga, staying from the beginning of the season until the end in search of wealth. Even then they are often able to leave only when some friend is kind enough to step forward and pay their bills, or they leave their whole wealth—their trunks—in the possession of the proprietor.

A description of some of the dresses worn at one of the full-dress balls may not be uninteresting to some of my lady readers. Two ladies, protegees of Mrs. Captain H., attracted general attention. One was dressed in pink, flounced; each deep flounce had on the edge a small flounce, fringed; her hair arranged a la Pompadour, with pearls. The other's dress was blue, and made in the same way. She had a feronia of carbuncles, a necklace of the same; her hair put up a la Grecque, and bracelets and ear-rings of carbuncles. They were called, during the evening, the