In these days of dire taxation the upkeep of any big establishment leaves precious little margin, and great are the sacrifices, prompted by a sense of obligation, and uncomplainingly made to save'a beloved house front falling into actual material ruin, or from suffering that living death of conversion into museum or some other form of institution.
A new dress is given up because the roof must be repaired, and the ladies' maid is jettisoned rather than that the gardener's staff should Occasionally.a° member of the aristocracy publicly repudiates his wife's dressmaker's bills, and this gives rise to floods of spoken and written nonsense. Absurd estimates are quoted as to the minimum dress allowance on which a peeress can, as they say, "keep up her station." Fantastic statistics are issued.
This is misleading nonsense. I have yet to hear of the woman to whom any door has been closed on account of her not spending enough on her clothes. In our country smartness is by -no means a very potent "open sesame," and in any case good dressing is'far more often a matter of time and taste than of great expense.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.