BY THE SEASIDE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 40, 4 October 1890, Page 3

BY THE SEASIDE.

HE'S here. She’s been everywhere. Hut ilk her ’ a^®Bt statement consists in telling what the Prince of Wales said when he S ave her his la B * photograph. She is the ■ most charming little —well, call it ‘tana ft, -j. jta'iUAw) diddler,’ that ever existed, and you ' I ft ViwX wonder, with a wonder that never eeases, 2 jLs&tfll'°"' a n >uslin frock and a simple, innocentlooking hat can adorn such a dainty villain. She sits in gingham and flirts in muslin ; she puts up a gold lorgnette to ‘ down ’ people whose gowns are not just what she approves of and she tells you quite frankly that, as she cannot have the kind of trap she wants, she declines any at all. This is the summer girl at her best. She will insist upon your reading Swinburne to her while she rests under a large umbrella ; she says she ‘don’t care’ for Browning, and she wonders what people find in Rudyard Kipling. She abhors scandal and does not believe that it is good form ; and somehow with her little fads, with her cool-looking gingham, and with her intense desire to make you believe she understands Algernon the Great, you have a soft place in your heart for her that somehow or other extends far past the sunny summer days. ELABORATE BATHING OUTFITS. Bathing? Paddling? Yes. Among the cottage people. A pretty woman never looks prettier than when, with skirt drawn to her knees, she paddles in the clear water. The manicure has made her feet look as lovely’ as her hand, and the half-revealing, half-concealing is quite as fascinating as in the day of the poet. A dainty-get-up for paddling consists of a kilt skirt of yellow and black striped serge reaching to the ankles. Under this is worn a kilted skirtof black silk trimmed with black lace, and very suggestive of the dainty Letty Lind. The bodice is a blouse of black silk, with a low sailor collar and deep cuffs of the striped serge. It is decidedly loose, and held in by a yellow and black belt. Direct from Trouville a French hat is worn with these —it is of black Neapolitan, framed with yellow dandelions, and having a black jet butterfly just in front. No gloves, shoes or stockings are worn, and the skirts are daintilly picked up while the maiden plunges into the deep just far enough to show in the blue water a pair of white feet that ought to charm anything masculine. ROMEO AND JULIET. A woman looks much better paddling than when she is bathing, for even Venus did not have to make an entrance from a bathing-house —she justspouted up from the sea and retreated. V hat an art that is ! There is one girl here who has her mother well trained in this respect. She, the girl, has won the admiration of an ecru young man who wears a deep purple sash. He adores this young woman, but he don't know how to tell her ; he palpitates ferociously, and his sash draws with emotion when she dances with another young man ; but as he cannot dance, he must sit and palpitate ; he takes her to get soda water and treats her to lollies; but still lie does not speak. She has resolved that he shall. So last night when everybody had left the verandah, she said, ‘ Indeed, ma, theair is too damp for you.’ The mot her thought it was, ami so toddled off to bed. Then that girl, with a deliberation worthy a census-taker, said, ‘ Freddy’, I do not wish to make unpleasant remarks, but people are talking about us.’ And Freddy, smoothing his sash, said, ‘ That seems a pity.’ Then this diplomate murmured, ‘Oh, rreddy, would you in your gieat strength permit this?’ And I‘reddy, having the strength of a puppy and the vanity of a peacock, says, ‘ Certainly not,’ami the pursued again remarks, ‘ Freddy, after this we understand each other as ■only two loving soulscan: you may kiss me.’ Freddy is the colour of a corpse and he performs the kiss mechanically —still he does it. This sounds like romance, but it really occured last week. SEASHORE VISITORS. There are, then, no good, sweet women? Plenty. But they are not the ones who are making themselves conspicuous at the watering places. Here by the great sea, that seems to sweep in with a wicked caress whatever comes near it, there are the very ones that came walking from the Ark, good and bad alike. They drive with mother in her handsome Victoria, followed by a tubful of children ; the placid grandmamma in her oldfashioned landeau, beaming down at the young girl ; the elderly likes a good horse when hesees-it, but who gives a charitable word to the boy- who has been taken in—are all seen in the procession that goes to form Vanity Fair. 1 ou can sit on the sands and watch the great sea come up, up, up, until a delicious sense of danger comes ovcryou.

You can for a little money take the sick baby down where it may breathe the salt air that the good God intended should bring it good health. You can go into a quiet corner of the piazza, and there, looking at the maid you love, realise how good a thing is woman generous, kind and loving. Indeed, that is what the sea air makes one do anyhow. It nevei seems to frolic, this great sea, but it does seem to say, ‘ If it pleased me, how easily yon would go into my great wide jaws •* And because lam little, and also because I do not know how to swim, I say, ‘ Please, good Mr Ocean, spare for another season your most ardent admirer.’