MOURNING TOILET FOR DINNER.-PAGE 279.

ETIQUETTE OF A LADY BEING PRESENTED AT THE QUEEN'S DRAWING-ROOM.-On getting out of the carriage, everything in the shape of a cloak or scarf, even of lace, must be left behind; the train folded carefully over the left arm, and the wearer enters the long gallery at St. James's, where she waits until her turn comes for presentation; she then proceeds to the Presence Chamber, which is entered by two doors; she goes in by that indicated to her, and on finding herself in the Presence Chamber, lets down her train, which is instantly spread out by the lordsin-waiting with their wands, so that the lady walks easily forward to the Queen. The card on which the lady's name is inscribed is then handed to another lord-in-waiting, who reads the name aloud to the Queen. When she arrives just before her majesty, she should curtsey very low, so low as almost, but not quite, to kneel before the Queen, who, if the lady presented be a peeress or a peer's daughter, kisses her forehead; if merely a commoner, holds out her hand to be kissed by the lady presented, who, having done so, rises, and makes curtseys to any members of the royal family present, then passes on, keeping her face towards the Queen, and backing out of the door appointed for those to go out of the Presence Chamber.

THERE is no vice or crime that does not originate in self-love; and there is no virtue that does not grow from the love of others out of and beyond self.

FLOWERS AND HEAD-DRESSES.

THANKS to Mr. TUCKER, of the celebrated Flower Emporium, No. 759 Broadway, we are enabled to lay before our readers the latest and most reliable information respecting those most important adjuncts to a lady's toilet, head-dresses and flowers. Many of the newest coiffures consist of wreaths mounted with the flowers rather large. Others are formed of diadems or tufts of flowers mounted on flexible stalks. A coiffure, named by the Parisian modistes the Coiffure Papillon, is composed of ruby-color velvet, and in the centre, above the forehead, there is a butterfly either of diamonds or steel. The Coiffure Sultane is a diadem formed of loops of green velvet, with a gold crescent in the centre; the diadem is fixed by two long gold chains fastened in a tie at the back of the head. Another coiffure, called the Louis Quatorze, consists of a torsade of porcelain-blue velvet and gold, with an aigrette of black lace and a brooch of precious stones. On one side two white feathers are twisted together.

White, black mauve and violet are the prevailing mode in flowers as well as in dresses, which is only too easily accounted for by the disastrous state of our national affairs, and also from the fact that so many of our fashions are transmitted from the old world, many of whose courts are now in mourning. The flowers most appropriate for mourning are white roses, jasmin, or viclets without the natural foliage. If leaves are employed they should be of black velvet or silk. A large variety of beautiful flowers are now made for mourning, ornamented with frosting and jet.

Mr. Tucker also showed us several mourning coiffures prepared for ball and full evening dress, consisting of wreaths of convolvuluses or other flowers, formed of mauve-color velvet, with black velvet foliage and white chrysanthemums, with clusters of berries in jet. Other head-dresses consist of black velvet and white feathers, &c., &c.

LADY'S GIRDLE.

HESTER DEENE was as lovely as a poet's dream. There was nothing angelic, nothing supernal in her beauty. Neither was her beauty of the voluptuous and sensuous order. She had a wonderful fineness and delicacy of organization, that made this her abounding physical life all the more remarkable, and removed it entirely from the sphere of the baser instincts of humanity.

than any I had every felt. I was highly susceptible to the influence of female beauty, but none had ever impressed me like hers. I admired, worshipped, became her slave.

To others Hester was but a charming girl, brilliant, vivacious, full of fire and spirit. To me she was the goddess of my idolatry, the woman whom I loved.

She responded to my devotion, she made me happy by many sweet tokens of her love; she became my wife.

I thought no man so greatly privileged as I. To call such a creature wife, to know her mine, to see her moving about my home, privately and publicly to have her by my side, save when the imperative calls of business drew me from her for brief spaces-was ever man so blessed? I thought not, and fondly hugged the pleasant delusion. Hester herself at last tore it from me. Her hands rent the scales from my eyes, her hand thrust the dagger to my heart.

Hester was my wife, and though she soon drove away all love, she was never more attractive to the senses merely than when fury heightened into sublime and awful beauty her peculiar loveliness. I denied her nothing that belonged to her station. Rare jewels, splendid dresses, elegant equipages, the privilege of feasting her friends without limit, my own personal attendance whenever she went into society-everything that my wife had a right to demand, had I loved her ever so dearly, trusted her ever so much, was hers.

I know not whether my poor wife had at at any time perfect power of control over her passions. Before our marriage she must have had this power to a great extent, else she had never been able to delude me into the belief that hers was but a high and generous spirit, a little warm, perhaps, but with no ignoble taint.

violent hysterical paroxysms that frequently followed her wilder bursts of fury.

Leaving her there in the care of her maid, I returned in haste to the scene of the disaster.

The servants had by this time lifted the motionless body of the nurse, and laid her upon the bed in an adjoining room. Others had succeeded in partially tranquillizing the screaming child, and one had gone to summon a physician.

Why prolong the story of that dreadful day? Before its close the nurse had ceased to live, and my wife, a prisoner in the hands of justice, only remained beneath my roof because too ill to be removed. To add to the trials of the hour, my boy was found to have received injuries of a very serious nature, the results of which time alone could determine.

sane.

Did company enter, while she was raving in her most violent gusts of fury, she would smooth her ruffled features, modulate her voice, subside from vehement gesticulation to ladylike repose of manner, and, scarce a moment sufficing for the change, turn to welcome her guests with high-bred courtesy.

I would have hid my troubles in my own breast. I could trust Hester, I found, not to betray herself to visitors, or in public; but unfortunately she did not deem self-control necessary in the presence of servants, and they are a class seldom to be trusted with household secrets.

Poor Hester often wreaked the violence of her wrath on them, and when they saw her as unreasonable and cruel with her firstborn child, they were not likely to hold their peace and deny themselves the revenge afforded by spreading the story of her wrong-doing. I thought, by holding up the consequences of her wrong to Hester, to place before her an adequate motive, since all others had failed, for decent self-restraint. The only result of the painful interview in which I attempted to achieve this purpose was a fit of fury more violent than even I, so often its victim, had ever witnessed.

She sprang upon me like a tigress. She beat me with her tiny clenched fists; she tried to fasten her sharp teeth upon my face; she committed a score of mad acts I would not here relate. Foiled in her attempts to wreak her rage upon me, she flew from the room. I thought she had gone, as she often did, to her own apartments, to wear out her anger in wild and restless motion, in destruction of furniture or other valuables. I was only too glad to purchase quiet thus.

But I was aroused from this hope by a fearful commotion in the direction of the nursery. She had flown thither furious with the belief that the old nurse (once my own, and now placed in charge of my boy to protect him by her faithful care as much as possible from his mother's violence) had been the author of the disgraceful rumors of which I had spoken to her. The household was alarmed, and as I rushed in the direction of the nursery, the affrighted servants crowded after me. What a sight met my gaze as I reached the open door!

Upon the floor, partly beneath his overthrown crib, lay my boy, filling the air with cries of fright and pain; and, sight more fearful! upon the hearthrug, her white hair dabbled with her own blood, that oozed from a fearful wound in the temple, was stretched the ancient nurse, the tried and faithful friend to whom had been entrusted my child. In the centre of the room, still brandishing the polished fire-iron with which she dealt the deadly blow, her beautiful face distorted, her eyes blazing with fury, stood, like an avenging demon, the woman I had called wife.

We hastened to seize her; and though she struggled with almost superhuman strength, she was soon secured. She was carried to her own apartment, where she fell at once into the

sufferings upon her health had been both swift and certain. It was with a strange joy that I closed her beautiful eyes in death. I knew that God is more merciful than man. He, perhaps,

would know that some taint of evil transmitted to her, and

without her own responsibility, had led her to commit the fearful deed. He, perhaps, might pardon. She died a humbled penitent.

sailed for Europe, turning my back, as I thought, for ever upon When I had seen the sod growing green above her grave, I

my native land.

Palliation, mitigation of my boy's sufferings was all that Dr. B promised. He was hopelessly, helplessly crippled. I could not bear to stay and watch his painful days and sleepless nights, to hear him moan and cry for his mamma, whom, spite of all her cruel rage, he had passionately loved, and whose absence he had never learned to account for. It was misery to leave him, it was far greater misery to stay.

I visited the Russian Empire, saw St. Petersburg and Moscow, and thence made my way to Constantinople and the far East. I saw Galilee and Bethany and Jerusalem. I wandered beyond the confines of civilization and dwelt among the barbarous nomadic tribes of the steppes; and after a thousand vicissitudes and perils, I found myself at Calcutta. Here a letter from my sister reached me. It had been written almost a year before, and, warning me of my boy's increasing feebleness, implored me to return to him and to relieve her of the sole responsibility, of such a charge.

I was stung with remorse as I perused the contents of this letter. I had neglected and endeavored to transfer my duty, in selfish sorrow. Doubtless my boy was already no more, had died with no parent near to watch and soothe him, to smooth the way his infant feet must tread as they neared the dark valley.

With frantic haste I made my preparations, and was speedily upon my way. I selected, of course, the overland route, as swiftest; and in a space of time almost incredibly short, I found myself entering Paris, en route for Marseilles, where I had landed the previous day.

I drove at once to the lodging where I had left my sister, but found she had removed to another quarter of the town-" a new quarter quite in the suburbs," the porter told me, where my son could have better air. The doctor had ordered his removal.

"Was the boy living?" I asked, hurriedly.

The porter did not know; he never left his little den, and nobody had been to the hotel who knew him. I was fain to curb my anxiety until I could hurry to the distant suburb.

"Madame was within, and the little boy and mademoiselle

also."

I bounded up the long flight of stairs, in my haste scarcely wondering who was the mademoiselle of whom I had heard nothing before—perhaps my sister's young daughter had joined