Page:A happy half-century and other essays.djvu/248

 object, to which the eye may remove with propriety and grace."

Grace was never overlooked in our great-grandmother's day, but took rank as an important factor in education. A London schoolmistress, offering in 1815 some advice as to the music "best fitted for ladies," confesses that it is hard to decide between the "wide range" of the pianoforte and the harp-player's "elegance of position," which gives to her instrument "no small powers of rivalry." Sentiment was interwoven with every accomplishment. Tender mottoes, like those which Miss Euphemia Dundas entreats Thaddeus of Warsaw to design for her, were painted upon boxes and hand-screens. Who can forget the white leather "souvenir," adorned with the words "Toujours cher," which Miss Euphemia presses upon Thaddeus, and which that attractive but virtuous exile is modestly reluctant to accept. A velvet bracelet embroidered with forget-me-nots symbolized friendship. A handkerchief, designed as a gift from a young girl to her betrothed, had a celestial sphere worked in one corner, to indicate the purity of their flame;