The Cnlt of the Lorgnette.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 62

The Cnlt of the Lorgnette.

In the old days, the early days, the days when First great George was dead and gone, George JI. was plodding on, when the fair sex, to add to their charms, assumed patches and powders, one of their cheap weapons of attack, of conquest, was the fan. In old volumes of tbe time v,e read of the fan treated scientifically. It was as important a thing to manipulate the fan correctly as it was to be able to take one's place in the minuet. A movement of the fan was ordained for each mood or vaiying fancy of nn age of extravagances and absurdities. There was the fan coquettish, the fan coy, or the fan alluring. However, these days have passed away with the powdered hair and the silver patch box, and, perhaps, the courtly grace of that age. The fan exists still, but its glory has faded ; its day is past. To whom" shall it yield the laurels it has worn for so many years? Surely to the lorgnette. But what* i s the lorgnette? \\ c find that it is " a little glass, ■which ia iisfid to see. ofeissu a shstik $.§£. d&^' -lift

word " lorgnon " we find described as a "concave pebble for the short-sighted, a convex one for the long-sighted, supported by a stick of metal or of shell." The lady of fashion of yesterday may have been charming with her fan, but to-day, with the lorgnette, she is invincible. Her smile of welcome is trebly enhanced, as, recognising you at the crowded " At home," she holds out a hand of friendly greeting. • At the private view she assumes the role of a critic of art. She pauses before a picture on the line, her lorgnette raised, examining it in every detail — a formidable critic indeed. No little flaw will escape her ; she notes the colour, the composition, and the varying tones. Before her magic glasses Raphael himself would shake in his shoes.

Madame is offended. See her haughty glance, hard as the winter, and as the winter cold, a dire and dreadful thing, as she regards you scornfully through those fateful glasses. Before, you were, perhaps, crushed and humbled ; now, beneath the lorgnette's charm, you are utterly routed, iou feel that you have fallen, never to rise again, so great is the power of that little contrivance of tortoise-shell and glass. In ordinary conversation, too, the lorgnette is supreme. You venture to contradict your fair companion ; she shakes her lorgnette in your face and repeats her arguments, picking off each point diintly on her fingers. You attempt to reply, but it is useless ; the lorgnette is held up demanding instant silence. And when the lady has finished, before you can utter a word, she points the instrument straight in your face, like a pistol, plainly implying: "Now, my dear man, refute that, if you dare! Why. you have not got a leg tD stand on ! " And she is quite right. You have not got a leg to stand on. The lorgnette has knocked your last support away ; your retreat has been cut off entirely. Certainly in a point of verbal conte^i; the lorgnette wins the day. Its dramatic value in society is, on this point at least, immense. — Royal Magazine.