THE WOMAN'S WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12069, 12 September 1902, Page 3

THE WOMAN'S WORLD.

DIAMONDS.

Acconraixo to an expert writer in the Petit Bleu, the heyday of diamonds has gone, at least on the Continent. Diamonds are succumbing to three.kinds of evolution : —

1. The evolution of moral taste. It is now considered bad form for ladies and gentlemen to advertise their wealth by a display of diamonds.

2. A scientific evolution. Thanks to this diamonds are so wonderfully well counterfeited that they are no longer the sign of | wealth. The larger and the more numerous J the diamonds the more they are suspected I of being false. 3. The evolution of artistic taste. The diamond admits of hardly any variation in I shape or composition, i The great. Continental artists of to-day in j the, jewellery line use gold, silver, even i copper or iron, and produce with them little ] man-els of art, in which the diamond hardly ! ever enters, unless in a. very minute and accessory way, in order to "animate'' the) whole. j DRESSING FOR, DINNER. j ''I tali* it 'putting on side and swagger j for the Browns to dress for dinner every night!" said one of the callers at a suburban afternoon tea. ''They livo in a small house, and everybody knows they have a small in- - come!" chimed in No. 2 of the critical neighbours. "For them to dress in the evenings is just aping, the customs of smart people quite above them in station!" snapped a third, as she set her cup down with decision. And all three settled themselves comfortably over their tea and muffins to deplore the airs the Browns gave themselves. Now, Mrs. Brown was too charming a. woman to be guilty of " side" and vulgarity. And the family custom of dressing for dinner which raised tho ire of some of her neighbours was the result of wise thought and motherliaess. There was no denying the fact that the rising generation of young Browns, ranging in ago from 17 to 25. were apt to he quarrelsome and argumentative. Mr. Brown was nervous, and inclined to be irritable. He worked hard all day in the city, and the arguments, and the small naggings, and family jars at dinner were not refreshing to a tired man. "My dears." said Mrs. Brown at last, " I am going to insist on every member of the family dressing every evening for dinner, as though we were entertaining friends. 1 shall expect you all to put on your best manners with your change of clothes, as you would if you were going to a dinner party." And that was the beginning of the notoriously pleasant family dinners in the Brown household. They had been accustomed to come straight in from business or shopping, and to sit down to dinner just as they were," irritable, cross, and ready to contradict, everybody. , They brought all the little frictions and worries of the day to the diningroom circle. All that is now changed. They .go straight to their rooms, and have a refreshing hot water scrub. The girls put on nice freph blouses or half-worn, evening gowns; the young men don a frock coat or dinner jacket. Tins small change rouses a desire to please. The girls, who used to be short and snappy at meals, have quite reformed. Dressing for the evening reminds them that they are nice looking. They put on pretty manners with their pretty frocks. All the. cobwebs of the day ate (.based off: the accumulated bothers and irritabilities are forgotten in the small ceremony of making themselves look nice for the evening. It cheers- up husbands and brothers to see their womankind dainty and sweet at dinner. It's much harder to say nnplcasait things .0 a gracefully dressed, graciously mannered woman than to the same person in her grim, plain, everyday attire. A change from the vorkaday clothes gives a pleasant feeling that you are going to enjoy yourself. It is quite like preparing for a little party. Nothing is more' fatal to the happiness of a Lnnrty than that unfortunate sentence, " It's only ourselves; we needn't bother about how we look unless strangers are coming. ' Young people ought- to be taught that nice behaviour and pretty clothes in one's own family circle are even more important than outside it. Despite the unkind criticisms of ! eanu of her neighbours, Mrs. Brown's chief i regret is that -she did not start " dressing for j dinner as soon as her children wore short j coated! "It would have saved years of tin- > pleasant-mess at meal times," she says, with i a sigh. !