Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/363

 also the Esthetic Bath, reserved for those only of approved health and perfection of form. If any one else wishes to enter this particular bath, he or she must don for the time a slight dress, so that the onlooking public, expecting only the perfection attributable to the place, may not be presented with forms which, as more or less defective, have failed to pass the ordeal. This dress has acquired, amongst the younger maiden aspirants particularly, the name of "the night-gown," to signify its blighting effects to the hopes and ambitions of those who are forced to wear it.

Many a fair young maiden, in the happy days of her courtship, will regularly sport about in the Esthetic Bath, defying the night-gown, and giving the loved one, in the adjacent bath, every opportunity he could wish to satisfy himself as to the perfection of his future wife. The baths are separated only by the slightest of open gratings. Modesty does not admit of speaking to one another, as there might be contact by the breath. Indeed, the highest courtesy, as well as the best manners, is to appear not to be looking directly at your object, however absorbing. Prudent old parents are less pretentious in that fashionable high delicacy; and when an engagement seems likely to take place, the parents on both sides, not altogether trusting the discernment of the parties themselves, through the usual mists of love's spectacles, may be seen repeatedly upon the Esthetic Walk, accompanied by the family doctor, and contriving a much more direct inspection.

The guardians of the Esthetic Bath have at times no small trouble with the Jovian fair sex, in their efforts