Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/124

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112
Side Talks with Girls

WITH THE EYES OF A MAN

A young woman I knew, who affected this masculine get-up, was so pretty that it seemed a shame, and a gentleman ventured to expostulate with her, telling her that she was so charming as a woman that she ought not to try to look like a poor imitation of a man. His words were met by a prolonged whistle, and this reply, which was unanswerable, "Oh, but it is so tart!" This same young woman was invited to a dinner-party. She announced that she intended to make a sensation by her costume, and it was generally believed that she was going to appear in some very beautiful gown. Imagine the horror of the hostess when she entered the drawing-room in a black broadcloth skirt that fitted her figure closely. With this she wore an evening shirt, a black waist-coat, cut low to show the expanse of white linen, and a black dress-coat. Her shirt-buttons were white enamel ones, so were the links in her cuffs, and her tie of white lawn was arranged after the fashion affected by men in the evening. After she went away the son of the hostess said to his mother, "Never invite that girl to the house again. No woman with the least refinement would, even for a jest, appear dressed in that The mother gave a sigh of relief and