Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/204

 herself to the gaze of her male flatterers in full daylight. How many of the "beautiful" Mrs. Juno-Athenes or the "lovely" Lady Spendthrifts could stand such a test unflinchingly? Yet the simplest draperies clothe the Greek marbles when they are clothed at all, and jewels and fripperies on the goddess Diana would make her grace seem vulgar and her perfection common. Beauty, real beauty, needs no "creator of costume" to define it, but is, as the poets say, when unadorned, adorned the most.

Now it is absolutely impossible to meet with any "unadorned" sort of beauty in those circles of rank and fashion where the society paragraphist basks at his or her pleasure. On the contrary, there is so much over-adornment in vogue that it is sometimes difficult to find the actual true colour and personality of certain ladies whose charms are daily eulogized by an obliging press. Layers of pearl enamel picked out with rouge, entirely conceal their human identity. It is doubtful whether there was ever more face-painting and "faking up" of beauty than there is now,—never did beauty specialists and beauty doctors drive such a roaring trade. The profits of beauty-faking are enormous. Some idea of it may be gained by the fact that there is a certain shrewd and highly intelligent "doctor" in Paris, who, seeing which way the wind of fashion blows, brews a harmless little mixture of rose-water, eau-de-cologne, tincture of benzoin and cochineal, which materials are quite the reverse of costly, and calling it by a pretty sobriquet, sells the same at twenty-five shillings a bottle! He is making a fortune out of women's stupidity, is this good