WHAT IT IS TO BE ENGAGED.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 124, 27 January 1883, Page 314

WHAT IT IS TO BE ENGAGED.

Theeb is a charm about the very word " engaged ;" while the condition is aesthetic — at least, so every young lady says. How such a one pities — nay, often looks down upon young lady friends wham a week before she envied if they wore a better dress than herself, or dressed their hair in a more Gallican fashion, or danced every galop at the ball, -while she was a wallflower, for at least one dance ; "how little do they know," she now soliloquises, "of real happiness, real comfort ; how little do they know of the men !" She thinks it is so nice to be owned by somebody, and to own that somebody in return. Every morning her lover calls upon his way to the office, kisses her, and presents her with a fresh rose, so emblematic of herself ; and every evening he calls again, kisses her, and bestows upon her a novel and a dainty bouquet. He takes tea with her people, and admires the way in which she presides over the table, and whispers to her so softly — how delightful it will be when she pours out the tea and butters the toast for him alone ! And then the pleasant evenings in the dimly-lighted parlour, when lovers' vows are exchanged again and again ! Ah, Araminta's cup of joy is full. She is a new being, full of good humour, meekly bearing mother's whims and sister's petulance, and never retorting to brother's teasings, for these are but slight vexation, compared with the great love that is in her heart. She has her hours of gloom, when her lover is prevented from paying his daily visit ; but the troubles of the day are naught — she lives in a world of her own. Have patience with the engaged couple, then ! sympathise with them in enjoyment of their fools' paradise. Do not object to their loving each other, and to their selfish way of forgetting all else than themselves. Courting may probably be their sole happy experience. Matrimony may teach them lessons that are not pointed out in the book of lovers. We were all young once, and we loved as they loved — and doubtless made ourselves just as obnoxious to our neighbours.

Some fashion notes. — A mashed-potato coloured opera cloak is trimmed with butter-coloured braid. A vinegar-brown dress is lined with gun-barrel blue. A goat-yellow bonnet has feathers of shingle-green. A basque of smoothing-iron grey is stamped with blue-bottle-fly beads. A hashbrown bonnet is trimmed with golden hair. Peach-pit coloured gloves are worn with gingersnap red. A cauliflower warmed up with potatocoloured plush is adorned with poached-egg daisies. Cabbage-stalk green has be^g^kc^totatobug brown. Angostura purple &i;JH^^Rns of rag-carpet chenille. Bean-colourecPßHflftas a busted coal-scuttle old gold braid. """