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Show 2 THE UB1mTY D.El.L. suit like the Queen's. Her Majesty had appeared in tho Park with n. white-laced waistcoat or jacket, and a crimson short petticoat, and a little hat with a. feather. After this, there was no rest for the dress-makers till every lady had her short petticoat and jacket. The gentlemen professed themselves scandalized, - not at tho petticoat, but at the ladies buttoning their jackets up to the throat, as men button their coats in cold weather. 'Vc hear something also of periwigs under the hats ; but this, which seems to us the only objectionable part of the dress (and it was a. part not worn by the Queen) secDlB to have passed without challenge in those days of frizzled pates. Amidst the pressure on the dress-makers, tho brides claimed to be tho first served ; and the claim was allowed ; for it was clearly impossible for young ladies to be married till their wardrobes were prepared after the newest fashion : but it became more and more difficult to supply even the brides; for tho apprentices, and the dress-makers themselves were dying very fast, lm~I:Lt:'rTA, Tilt.: BJHD.t::. 3 -some said, with heat and fatigue, -others said with something worse. The fact was, - the Plague was in London, and spreading fast, though nobody in the fashionable world chose to own it. The physicians, seeing what would please, .and believing alarm to be dangerous, denied tho fact in genteel houses, though they swallowed a lump of spicy electuary when they rose in the morning, and went their rounds with lozenges in their mouths, and kept a flask of Canary wine handy, to fortify themselves when exhausted. They let tho world know of these precautions aftcrwt~rds ; but at the time, they seemed to deride all apprehensions, and helped to cry " Peace ! peace ! " when there was no peace. l\Iis.~ Henrietta llolmes was one of tho intended brides of that summer, and for her were many needles plied, till one apprentice after another dropped from her stool, or failed to como to work in the morning. The ga.y girl knew nothing of this; for her lover kept from her knowledge all he |