LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2409, 3 May 1900, Page 62

LADIES' GOSSIP.

— The Empress Eugenic, who is now far more aged in appearance than the Queen, . was deeply touched by tb«* fact of Lord Roberts having lost his son in South Africa, where the Prince Imperial was killed. She has always liked the general since he brought her personally some" flowers plucked by na English officer on the tpot where her son fell. The Empress wrote to Lord Roberts a letter of sympathy in her own hand. — A very pretty romance is attached to the hurried marriage of Miss Wyndham to Major Max&c, of the Cojdstreani Guards. They have been attached for years, and for some time privately engaged. Then when Major Maxse had to go to the" front, his fiancee desired that the engagement might be published within 24 hours, and Major Maxse persuaded her to follow Lad yEvelyn Ward's example, and become a soldier's bride. The wedding was very rapidly arranged, and the honeymoon was sadly brief. Miss Wyndham is the charming^ and winsome daughter of Lord Leconficld* and Major Maxse is the son of Admiral Maxse. The gallant young officer is as unlike his father in appearance, views, and habits as it is possible to imagine. The ceremony took place recently in St. George's, Hanover square. The bride wore a white satin gown trimmed with . Brussels lace and lover's knots of orange blossom; her ornaments were diamonds.

-SucE an expuisite bit of fanciful jewellery caught myattentiqn last week," says a writer in a Rome paper. " The ornament consists of the niosl gorgeous j^Keon-blpod

ruby, surrounded by smaller rubies, in tl* shape of a^b'urning flame, the shape of the flame being outlined in brilliants of excep* -ticnal quality. Beneath ths flame, and attached by an invisible gold thread, is ai large moth composed of a curious grey, crystal found in Montana, and surrounded' by diamonds, the filmy outstretched wings also of diamonds, with an outline of palecoloured emeralds. The ornament is intended for a breast ornament, being too large to be designated a brooch." — The Prince and Princess of Wales,with the Duke of York; paid a visit to tha hospital ship named after her Royal Highness on its arrival at Southampton With 176 soldiers invalided home. The Princess addressed to nearly every one of the men a word of inquiry as to how he now felty or a hope that he would soon be batter. Several were able to show tlie bullets taken from their wounds, and these vrcre intently examined by the Prince and the Duke of York, the Princess exclaiming repeatedly, "Oh, this terrible war! this terrible war!" The Prince paid particular attention to the sanitation of the ship wlnls the Princess was continuing her round with unflagging sympathy, and indicating to all to be seated in such terms as " Sit down, I my poor fellow," or "Don't tire yourself standing any longer." — " By the bye," writes a Paris corresi pondent, '' this is the first time ' that a> ' really honest endeavour is being % made by. our elegantes to lean? to dance ; not, of course, that they have not been able hitherto to walk through a "square figure or steer , through the mazes of a cotillon, while the I agility of la belle Americaine in the valse is too well knowr to be cuestioned ; and the. Boston Dip, the Baltimore Flutter, and the Newport Slide have all f,ound their way across the Atlantic in company with, the three-decker trunk, the razor-toed shoe, and the universal demand for ice-water ! i Recently, however, Columbia's fair daugh- | ters have discovered that they are by no means the most graceful exponents of the Terpsichorean art in the world, and are considerably lacking in what is known as the ' poetry of motion,' so forthwith the I creme-de-la-creme, of society have'organised ! a select little circle for the acquirement of ] symmetry of movement and grace of carI riage and have engaged the services of a | famous ex-danseuse, who i$ now somewhat too old for die glare of the footlights, and who is glad to turn her world-famed agility into a new direction by teaching the aristocratic dames and damsels of Gotham how to ! stand, sit, walk, and dance with perfect grace. Under the tuition of this lady, tho wives and daughters of the ' Four Hundred' assemble every morning in a fashionable private hall up town, and "pirouette into the presence of ' Madaine,' and submit ! themselves to her somewhat arbitrary instruction with lamblike docility. - They marvel at the :lissomeness and grace with, which the old lady, who is a Spaniard by , birth, trips about the room, and e-xplains-why it is that the Spanish woman, who usually becomes enormously fat as she advances in life, yet so well^understSands the /'theory of poise and the instinct of throwi ing all her ' weight on the ball of the ! foot instead of on the hip, that she never loses the wonderful arch of her instep, and i can carry 16 stone, of solid flesh with the , light footfall of a. child. The ex-danseuse ■is°so earnest in her exhortations, and, withal,, so clever and explicit in her illustrations, that, under her instruction, ?, wonderful improvement ii deportment will be a noticeable- feature in the ballrooms of- the winter season."