Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/498

 BEAUTY 474 sons afterwards became famous in the Peninsular War. To bring up this family Sir George and Lady Sarah never had more than a thousand a year ; but the high- spirited girl who, " if she had had a grain of artfulness in her," would have been Queen of England was quite content to manage and do without for the sake of her devoted husband. Napier died in 1804, and left her absolutely broken-hearted. She was poor, too, until the King granted a pension of ;^8oo a year to his old love in recoe^nition of Napier's services, A Model Mother She was adored by her children as few mothers are, but all her life she had the art of winning people's affections. This is not surprising, for her letters reveal a singularly charming character. She wrote all her thoughts and feelings to Lady Susan, who wa.'^ her staunch friend even when her family were most displeased with her. When the King's informal proposal for her hand had been related to her, and she was to go to Court the next day primed with the proper thing to say — which, as we have seen, she flagrantly did not say !— she writes to Lady Susan " that the very thought of it makes me sick already," a plain and graphic description of a feeling which in these days we mask under the polite name of " feeling nervous." When he had made her look foolish by treating her as his future wife until the very day of the announcement of his engagement, Lady Sarah writes : " If it is true that one can vex anybody with a reserved, cold manner, he shall have it, I promise him ! " (And he got it !) Her wisdom, however, even at that early age, is quite remarkable ; for in begging Lady Susan not to talk of the King's proposal, she says, " He will hate us all anyway, for one generally hates people that one is in the wrong with." When Napier is wooing her she writes to Lady Susan : "I think myself such an old fool to marry at all, that I have not the courage to take one single step about it." For- tunately, Napier was ready to take them all. At the age of sixty-five, although her beauty never deserted her. Lady Sarah went blind. It is curious that she and George III. should both have lost their sight in old age, and a touching story is related of the blind King. The great-niece of his old love, also called Lady Sarah Lennox, was going to Court, and those about the King thought it well to prepare him for the advent of her namesake. The King asked if there was any likeness to the Lady Sarah Lennox of his youth, and was told " Yes." Whereupon he asked that she be presented to him privately. And when she came he begged permission to pass his hand over her features. It was a far cry from the days when the lovely girl-child in rustic dress had played at hay-making in the grounds of Holland House when the gallant young King was to ride by, to these days of age and darkness. Lady Sarah Napier died in 1826, leaving behind her an adoring family, and records of exceptional beauty and charm of cha- racter. From the singing-bird of the great blue china jar to the stately, beautiful, blind old lady of eighty-one, she was ever not onljT^ charming but lovable. A Romantic Life She came into the world in a romantic year and on a romantic day — St. Valentine's Day in the year of the '45. • Save for three months, when she left a cold and neglectful husband for a young and ardent lover, her conduct was irreproachable ; and if the early part of her life was frivolous and fickle, in the latter part she showed the constancy and the tenderness of a saint. BEAUTY CULTURE FOR WOMEN Coitinned frotn pa^e 32s, Part 3 Mo. 4o THE CARE OF THE TEETH Importance of Caring for the Teeth in Childhood— Effect of Diet— Tartar— Dentifrices in Powder and Liquid Form— Discoloration of the Teeth — False Teeth 'P'he care of the teeth should begin before birth, and when the supply of calcareous salts is poor in the system of the mother, Nature gives warning by attacking that mother's teeth. Preparations of phosphate of lime are required by the system at this period. The next care is to avoid " rickets " in the child, and then to guard its first teeth by cleanliness, for it is a mistaken notion to suppose that first teeth do not matter. But at the school-age more care than ever is required, bscause now the brain, by con- suming more phosphates, adds to the attack of the system upon the teeth. Regarded, therefore, from the particular point of view of the teeth, oatmeal ought to form part of the diet of every school-child. That the