AUCKLAND BELLES-PAST AND PRESENT.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 41, 25 June 1881, Page 452

AUCKLAND BELLES-PAST AND PRESENT.

No. 2. — A Belle of the Present. — Miss Clayton.

" A tiling of beauty is a joy for ever;" so ■wrote the poet Keats. But when you are asked to name a living and breathing beauty, and to describe her, the "joy" becomes a very doubtful matter ; for what one thinks perfection, another finds very commonplace and vice-versa. However, so many of the elite have agreed in considering Emily Clayton as a belle that I take her as first of the present series. She is a niece of Lady Vogel's, and inherits some of the charms which captivated the unsusceptible heart of the Great Premier. She has light "brown hair, a pale, clear, colourless complexion, china-blue eyes, a straight nose, and a pretty small mouth. Her figure is of middle height, and though there is nothing to find fault with, it is not so prepossessing as her face. But what has any description to do with the nameless, indescribable fascination of manner which "fetches " ? How can any words paint the subtle charm which lies in a clear blue eye, which lurks in the smile that plays around a mignonne mouth ? Miss Clayton is not a resident of Auckland, nor is Auckland her birthplace, although she has been visiting here now for a long period. This is one reason why I five her the honour of first place, and allow the aughters of the soil to wait for another fortnight. Miss Clayton was decidedly the nicestlooking girl at Mis Alfred Isaacs' ball in the Choral Hall not long since ; she Avas there unanimously awarded the palm of beauty. I do not know her well enough to say whether her qualities of heart and mind correspond with her exterior ; but lam told that she has great conversational powers, and is clever as well as agreeable. Esmond.