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"What is the matter with you? You look so strange. What have you been doing? and where, oh, where is your son?"

"Where is Jack?" faltered the major. He staggered, and Kate, with a strength that she did not know she possessed, stretched out her hands and supported

him.

"Dear Major Wodehouse, you look so ill and so tired," she said soothingly. "I am so glad to see you! Let me take your arm and help you home."

"But you said, Where is Jack?" said the major.

He seemed half dazed. He looked stupidly at her. In four months he had grown ten years older.

"Yes, dear Major Wodehouse," said Kate, trying to speak steadily through her tears. "He went away the same night that you did, and he has been travelling in Germany ever since. I believe there are hundreds of letters awaiting you from him. Oh, let us make haste and get to the house!"

"Jack went away the same night!" echoed the major. "My boy, my boy," he murmured, "you might have trusted me! You said, "Which of us must go?' and you might have known I should be the

one.

"But why had either of you to go away?" asked Kate, with irrepressible curiosity.

The major drew himself up till once more he was a fine man. In the moonlight he and Kate scanned each other.

"Kate!" he said solemnly and with old-fashioned courtesy, "I am not ashamed to say that my boy and I both aspired to the hand of the same dear and sweet lady. When I found it out, I resolved to go away, hoping that you and he would marry and be happy, and I wrote and wrote begging him to try and win you. But at last, my dear"- the major's voice faltered "at last I could bear it no longer, for I have never been separated from my boy since he was born, and I hoped I might have the honor of calling you my daughter, and instead you tell me that my boy has fled."

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Kate burst into a passion of weeping. "Oh, Major Wodehouse," she sobbed, "I don't know what your son feels about me, but, whatever happens, let me be a daughter to you!

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An hour later, Kate and the major had read Jack's first note and most of his subsequent letters.

written on the morning of his departure, "My dear Father," the young man had world to me, but I cannot forget that you "Kate Layard has come to be all the have been all the world to me all my days before. So I am going. When I think you are married, I will wait in some place for news of you. Till then, I shall write, but push on, and leave no address. "Believe me truly, dear Father, "Your loving Son,

"J. W." The succeeding letters were written in the same strain, and at last came several from Bonn impatient for replies.

The major groaned.

"Why didn't he trust me?" said he, over and over again.

"But you will write now?" suggested Kate; "or telegraph ?"

"I will telegraph," said the major eagerly, opening the drawer where he kept telegraphic forms. "He will be at home the day after to-morrow, and you

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I," said Kate, blushing, "am going to Brighton to-morrow.”

"What?" cried the major.

But he could say no more, for hurrying footsteps were heard in the hall and a voice that cried, " Where is he? Where is my father?"

And the major rushed out, and Kate sank half fainting into a chair.

I do not know exactly what Jack and the major said to each other, nor would it be fair-even if I knew-to relate the precise terms in which Jack spoke his hopes to Kate nor how Kate made answer. But I will say that Kate walked home in the moonlight on Jack's arm, and that the major looked after them without envy, and thought that, at past sixty, a daughter is better than a second wife.

The major appeared the next day, spruce and tall as ever, and nobody but Kate knew how nearly sorrow and separation had made an old man of him. As for Jack, when he read his father's first note and successive letters, he felt more inclined to cry than he had done since he was a little lad and lost a favorite marble. "I love Miss Layard," the major had written, but I love you even more, my boy, and I retire. Win her, Jack, and God be with

Then the major kissed her tenderly. "My dear," he said, "whatever happens" I will be a father to you."

And she took his arm and guided his you both." wearied footsteps to his own door.

"A father's love is beyond words," he

said to Kate. "I ought not to have thwarted him."

"But you see, Jack, I loved you," returned Kate conclusively.

So the bridal was celebrated, and Jack's partner, who was the only other person who knew why the major and Jack had vanished, made a speech, in which he said words of such oracular significance that the bride blushed, and the bridegroom and his father exchanged glances of deep affection.

"In every incident of life," said this gentleman, "my partner Wodehouse and my friend the major have acted similarly. Even in their love affair-if it becomes me to tread on ground so sacred—it has been with them a case of 'Like father, like son."" FAYR MADOC.

From The Gentleman's Magazine. TOWN LIFE UNDER THE RESTORATION. THE representation of places and people, whether we chance to be well acquainted with them, or whether we chance to be strangers to them, is almost certain to prove attractive. For one reason, the renewal of our own impressions, or the comparison of them with those of others, is well calculated to afford us considerable gratification. For another, we gladly embrace all the opportunities which present themselves of increasing the stock of knowledge which we possess respecting man and nature. In the case of foreign impressions, the invigorating air of youth breathes over us again from the new points of view, and in the freshness of emotion under which we regard objects which have long been as familiar to us as the clothes that we wear. Nor is it novelty alone, seeing that curiosity co-operates with reason. Great communities, as well as private individuals, are often equally inquisitive to know what their neighbors think and say respecting them. To men, individually, one of the greatest benefits to be derived from foreign travel is the tendency that it has to remove the film of vulgar and local prejudice by which their vision so often becomes obscured. The migration of an entire community is impossible, but the visits of educated and impartial strangers may, so far as this is concerned, prove equally effectual, premising that the people will be disposed to give careful consideration to what they may have to say upon its manners, its customs, and its institutions. During the

eighteenth century Britain was constantly visited by foreigners, and of these upwards of sixty published elaborate accounts of their sojourns among us, thus providing the student of the social condition of England during that eventful period with an inexhaustible storehouse of facts. It is to be wished that the same could be said of the second half of the seventeenth century. But it cannot. There was no lack of foreign visitors to our shores during that time, but they either did not see fit to record their experiences in print, or if they did, they have not survived to us. The number of those who actually published accounts of their perambulations through the land we live in between the accession of Charles II. in 1660 until the close of the seventeenth century, so far as we have been able to ascertain, does not amount to more than a dozen all told, and all their performances, without exception, are meagre and unsat isfactory to the last degree. Hence the student who desires to view the social condition of "this happy breed of men, this earth, this England," during that period, is deprived of those aids which lie so plentiful to his hand when he sits down to study the social condition of England during the succeeding century. He must either abandon the idea aitogether, or set himself diligently to peruse the dramatic literature and other forms of light literature which the age produced, the journals, and other recondite sources of information, in order to familiarize himself with national manners and morals. He must become a veritable Autolycus -a snapperup of unconsidered trifles, if he desires to behold "the very age and body of the times, his form and pressure."

Life in the English capital under the sway of Charles II. was a curious compound, and ranged from the grave to the gay, from the lively to the severe. It was by no means easy work. Seldom was the pursuit of pleasure attended by so much labor, seldom was the business of enjoy. ment found to be so exhausting. Daily life commenced very early and ended very late, and was perpetually renewed with unceasing regularity. The people of rank, from whom, indeed, the rest of society were content to take their ideas of what was fashion and what was not, rose very late in the day, although, probably, not much more so than their successors do in this latter quarter of the nineteenth century. Attire presented a most formidable obstacle. Moderns can have no conception, or at the best a very imperfect one,

whom he required to attend him in his progress through the streets clad in yellow liveries, relieved by black sashes wound round their bodies, and black feathers waving in their hats. It should be mentioned that under the Restoration all classes of the community wore their hair very long, allowing it to flow in natural ringlets around their shoulders; and so widely did this fashion prevail, that in the year 1664 the ample periwig or peruke was introduced into the country by the votaries of fashion, from the court of Lewis XIV., there being no English head of hair sufficiently luxuriant. Samuel Pepys, a careful observer of the contemporary fluctuations of fashionable attire, records in his

of the time which a fashionable beau con- | from that which was worn by his footmen,
sumed in dressing himself for the day,
nor of the numerous articles of which his
attire was composed. That contrast of
color between male and female apparel
which is now so conspicuous, then hardly
existed; and rank, wealth, and pretension
were consequently distinguished only by
costly and elaborate attire. This remark
must not be understood to apply to the
dandies and beaux who represented at
successive periods the extremes and the
eccentricities of fashionable costume.
Any indications of that neutral dress, dis-
similar neither as regards shape nor color,
which practically places noblemen on a
par with tradesmen, were entirely absent.
Modes of attire were in common vogue
which survive only in the court dress, in" Diary" that the Duke of York appeared
the civic pageantry, in the bright coats
worn by huntsmen, and in the gorgeous
hues of military uniforms. The pencils of
the famous portrait painter, Sir Peter Lely,
and of his successor, Sir Godfrey Kneller,
have preserved for us not a few represen-
tations of the fashionable attire of the
times in which they flourished, and abun-
dant illustrations of it are afforded by the
contemporary literature. Thus Randal
Holmes in his notes on dress, preserved
in the Harleian Library, and written about
the accession of Charles II., furnishes the
following description of a fashionable
gentleman's dress: "A short waisted
doublet and petticoat breeches; the lining
being lower than the breeches is tied above
the knees; the breeches are ornamented
with ribands up to the pocket, and half
their breadth upon the thigh; the waist-
band is set about with ribands, and the
shirt hanging out over them." The hat
was worn with a high crown, and was
adorned with a plume of feathers. Long,
drooping lace ruffles depended from the
knee, and a rich falling collar of lace, with
a cloak hung carelessly over the shoulders.
High-heeled shoes tied with ribbons com-
pleted the attire of the Restoration beau.
Of course, as may be supposed, all fine
gentlemen did not dress precisely alike.
Some decorated their persons with an
infinite amount of finery; others exercised
more economy in this respect. Not every
fop of that age, for example, attired him-
self in form and fashion like to Beau
Fielding Handsome Fielding as he was
styled by the Merry Monarch-the beau
par excellence of his day. That individual,
whenever he took his walks abroad, car-
ried spoils on his person from all quarters
of the globe. Some idea of the sumptu-
ousness of his own apparel can be formed

in public wearing a periwig for the first
time on February 5, 1664, and that he be-
held Charles wearing one for the first time
on the 18th day of April. Nearly about
the same time, too, the crowns of men's
hats began to be lowered, and the fashion
crept in of laying feathers upon their
brims. It cannot, however, be said that
any very important changes in English
male attire were effected until fully six
years after the Restoration. In the year
1666, Charles was heard solemnly to an-
nounce in council his firm determination
to adopt a certain habit which he was
steadfastly resolved never to alter; and
for the gratification of the curiosity of
those who may be interested in the details
of antique attire, we may say that this
wonderful habit consisted of a long, close
vest of black cloth or velvet, pinked with
white satin, over which was thrown a loose
surcoat or tunic of an Oriental character,
and buskins or brodequins in place of the
time-honored shoes and stockings. Ac-
cording to the diary of Evelyn, the king
"solemnly attired himself in his new
habit on the 18th day of October, and the
gossiping Pepys, who allowed little, if
indeed anything, to escape his notice,
made, under date of the preceding day,
the following entry in his “ Diary:
Court is all full of vests, only my Lord St.
Albans (Jermyn) not pinked, but plain
black; and they say the king says the
pinking or white makes them look too
much like magpies, so hath bespoke one of
plain velvet." We are further told by
Evelyn that not a few of the courtiers and
high-souled gentlemen about the English
court presented their sovereign on that
occasion with gold, as a sort of wager that
he would never adhere to his resolve of
wearing this peculiar costume. We cannot

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The

served admirably to point the moral of the political reformer or to adorn the tale of the mob demagogue, had such people then existed. Among the more astounding items of this bill appears the following: "117 yards of scissæ temæ,' cut work for trimming 12 pocket handkerchiefs, £485 145. 3d. And 78 yards for 24 cravats at £8 10s., £663." The expenditure for six new lace razor cloths amounted to £270, and on twenty-four new indusiis nocturnis, in plain English, night-shirts, the sum of £499 10s. was bestowed. King William's consort, the handsome Mary of Modena, approached, but did not quite reach her husband, in lace expenditure, seeing that in 1694 her lace bill attained the respectable total of £1,918. It will not surprise any one to learn that lace had one of its sunniest epochs in the eyes of all from the Restoration to the Revolution. From the king to the plebeian all retained a deep-seated affection for it. These were the days when all young military men wore lace, and prepared their cravats with far greater pains than the three Graces of classical antiquity ever bestowed upon the goddess Venus. Even the volunteers deemed it incumbent upon them to go to the camp wearing a quantity of lace, and very happily did the dramatist Thomas Shadwell satirize the folly in his comedy of "The Volunteers or the Stock Job. bers," as the following dialogue will serve to illustrate: "Major General Blunt.What say'st, young fellow? points and laces for camps? Sir Nicholas Danby. — Yes, points and laces. Why, I carry two laundresses on purpose. Would you have a gentleman go undress'd in a camp? Do you think I would see a camp if there were no dressing? Why, I have two campaign suits, one trimmed with Flanders lace and the other with net point."*

doubt that the Merry Monarch lost his wager, since the fashion does not appear to have been more than one of two years' duration, its ruin, in all probability, having been accomplished by the insolence of the French king, Lewis XIV., and his courtiers, who, to manifest the contempt that they entertained for "his Majesty of England," clothed all their servants and retainers in the very costume which his capricious fancy had devised. But though the fashion was abandoned its influence was considerable. In the vest probably was contained the germ of the long squarecut coat by which it was succeeded, and in the tunic most likely was contained the germ of the waistcoat, almost as long, which was worn under the coat, and almost entirely concealed the breeches. The sleeves of the coat extended no further than the elbows, where they were turned back and formed large cuffs, those of the shirt bulging forth from beneath, ruffled at the wrists and adorned profusely with ribbons. Both coat and waistcoat were, of course, adorned with buttons and buttonholes from the collar downwards to the knee. The Restoration era, being essentially the age of "the dangling knee fringe and the bib cravat," it was only natural that the stiff band and the falling collar, which had been worn under the tyranny of Puritan ascendency, should have given place to neckcloths or cravats of Brussels or Flanders lace tied with ribbons beneath the chin, and with the ends hanging down square. In this age of Puritan sobriety in dress, it is difficult to comprehend the mania which seized the breasts of fine gentlemen of the Caroline age for lace. We find Pepys in 1662 putting on his "new lace band," and recording in his "Diary" his complete satisfaction with his appearance in it. "So neat it is," wrote he, "that I am resolved my great expenses shall be lace bands, and it will set off anything else the more !"* Charles II., in the last year of his reign, actually expended £20 12s. for a new cravat to be " worn on the birthday of his dear brother;" and James II. expended almost as much as £30 upon a cravat of Venice point lace in which to appear on the anniversary of the birthday of his consort. King William III., notwithstanding his iron, phlegmatic constitution, entertained a genuine Dutch taste for lace, so much so, indeed, that his bills for that article in 1695 amounted to the modest sum of £2,459 195., a fad which would have

• Diary, i., p. 171.

Our readers would be very greatly mistaken were they to conclude that female attire under the Restoration was any the less sumptuous, any the less gaudy, or any the less costly than that which was ordinarily worn by the opposite sex. The very reverse was the case. A great change was effected during the reign of Charles II. in the female costume of England, but it was one that was confined almost exclusively to that which was worn by the upper classes of society. As before, the middle and lower classes, the wives of the citizens, and those who would have been denominated countrywomen, adhered tenaciously to the wearing of high

Shadwell's Works, ed. 1730.

crowned hats, of French hoods, of laced Braganza and her ladies, the Portuguese
stomachers, and of yellow starched neck- not having yet laid aside those curious
erchiefs. Very little traces of innovation offsprings of fashionable taste. Evelyn
were apparent before the Revolution; and does not forget to mention and describe
then only such as were of minor impor- "her Majesty's foretop," as long and
tance. Where the mutations of women's turned aside very strangely. Vizards,
attire were most visible while Charles according to Pepys, came into fashion in
Occupied the throne, was in that of the 1663, the journalist purchasing one for his
beauties who thronged the halls of his wife in that year. So great was Pepys's
palace at Whitehall. No unpleasant re- sense of the importance of fine clothes, that
minders of the heyday of Puritanical aus- it led him to take note of those which were
terity were suffered to intrude themselves worn not only by himself, but by almost
within the walls of that princely abode. every well-dressed person with whom he
No external insignia of saintly profession, came into contact, particularly the ladies.
of real godliness, of high degrees of spir- Thus, for instance, he gives a very graphic
itual advancement, could there dare to lift description, under the date of July 13,
up their heads. Nothing in the matter of 1663, of the personal appearance of the
attire was countenanced at court or in queen and some of the court ladies while
polite society that was not untainted with riding in Hyde Park. "By and by," he
Puritanism. We see this reflected in a writes, "the king and the queen, who
remarkable degree in the contemporary looked in this dress (a white laced waist-
literature, particularly the veracious dia- coat and a crimson short petticoat, and her
ries of Pepys and Evelyn, who appear to hair dressed à la negligence) mighty pretty,
have paid special attention to the costume and the king rode hand in hand with her.
worn by those with whom they were Here was also my Lady Castlemaine who
thrown into contact. Symptoms of the rode amongst the rest of the ladies; she
coming change began openly to manifest looked mighty out of humor, and had a
themselves six years before the downfall yellow plume in her hat (which all took
of the Commonwealth. "I now observed," notice of), and yet it is very handsome.
wrote Evelyn in his "Diary," under date... I followed them up into Whitehall
of May 11, 1654, "how the women began and into the queen's presence, where all
to paint themselves, formerly a most igno- the ladies walked, talking and fiddling
minious thing." In 1660 Pepys mentions
that he saw the Princess Henrietta (sister
of Charles II.) "with her hair frizzed up
to her ears; " and almost coeval with the
revival of this fashion was the introduc-
tion by ladies of the practice of wearing
black patches, since Mrs. Pepys was able
to wear one "by permission," on Novem-
ber 4, 1660. It would seem as if it was
by the ladies that peruques were first worn,
seeing that under date of March 24, 1662,
Pepys records that "By and by came La
Belle Pierce to see my wife and to bring
her a pair of peruques of hair as the fash-
ion now is for ladies to wear, which are
pretty, and one of my wife's own hair, or
else I should not endure them." * In the
month of April following we find Pepys
mentioning"petticoats of sarcenet with a
broad black lace printed round the bottom
and before," as having newly come into
fashion, and as being one that had found
favor in the eyes of his spouse. On May
30 in the same year, the English court
was electrified by the sight of the mon-
strous fardingales or guard infantas of
the newly arrived Queen Catherine of

337.

Pepys's Diary, ed. Lord Braybrooke, 1848, i,. p.

with their hats and feathers, and changing
and trying one another's by one another's
heads and laughing. . . . But, above all,
Mrs. Stewart'in her dress, with her hat
cocked and a red plume, with her sweet
eye, little Roman nose, and excellent
taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever
saw, I think, in my life."* Pepys also
mentions that silver-laced gowns were a
revived fashion in 1664, and speaks of
yellow bird's-eye hoods as being in vogue,
under the date of May 10, 1665. From
another passage in Pepys's "Diary" we
gather that the ladies' riding-habits re-
sembled very closely those of the dandies.
"Walking in the galleries at Whitehall,"
writes Pepys, under date of June 11, 1666,
"I find the ladies of honor dressed in
their riding garbs, with coats and doublets
with deep skirts, just for all the world like
men, and buttoned their doublets up the
breast, with periwigs and with hats. So
that, only for a long petticoat dragging
under their men's coats, nobody could
take them for women in any point what-
ever, which was an odd sight and a sight
that did not please me. It was Mrs. Wells
and another fine lady that I saw thus."

• Diary, ii., p. 194.

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