A Pretty Woman.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XXII, 28 November 1903, Page 65

A Pretty Woman.

What is essential to a pretty woman! Here is the answer, as given by a modern beauty expert: A pretty woman, first of all, must have clearly cut, regular features. She must have a skin above reproach, untouched by rouge or powder. She must have full, clear eyes. She must have eyelashes long and curling upward. She must have eyebrows finely marked, slightly arched, long and narrow; yet the narrow line should be thickly covered, so as to be well marked, as if pencilled. She must have a straight nose, yet delicate, neither fleshy nor pointed, nor broad at the tip, with the nostrils free and flexible. She must have a mouth rather too large than too small, with lips full and plump, and rosy red. Even an exquisitely shaped mouth has no eharm without expression.

She must have even, regular teeth, of moderate size, pearly white, with full enamel. She must have a chin neither sharp nor blunt, but gently undulating in its line, round and cushion, turning a little upward, with a dimple in it. She must have a small, delicate jaw, not large and angular, which gives a hard, domineering look. She must have glossy hair that has never known the touch of bleach or dye. She must have a throat rounu, full and pillar-like—a marble column to support the head. She must fully understand what best suits her in the way of hairdressing, and cling closely to that style. She must have small, delicate, compact ears of a shell-like shape. She must have a forehead smooth, even, white, delicate, short and of an open trustful character. Ariosto say< “of terse ivory was the joyous brow.” She must have a long and delicatej hand, yet plump, with tapering fingers, the tips of which, when resting on the palm, should turn back a little. She must have a nail “transparent like a ruby among pink roses” —not long, not round, nor altogether square, but of a fair shape, with a white crescent visible at the base. She must have a foot not too small, but proportioned to the stature it supports; white, well arehed, with a curved outline and a smooth surface. She must have an arm with a round and flowing outline, no sharpness at the elbow, and tapering down gently to a small wrist. She must have sloping shoulders, not too broad.

She must have a waist twice the sizf of her throat, not, as fashion has to<| tften made, nearly the same size. She must have hips high and wide. She must have a good figure, plum{ enough, yet slender enough, thougl never suggestive of an angle. She must know how to poise the body in other words, how to stand correctly She must know how to sit without be, ing stiff-waisted. She must possess the pose and repos that mark the “daughter of a hundrei earls.” She must have a gait which may b likened to that of a Diana following th hounds. She must know how to climb stairs also how to come down stairs, grace fully, without any attempt to pus tides in the steps. She must have a flexible, vibrant caressing, tender, poetic, crystallin voice. She must know how to put on he clothes, or she loses half her beauty. A woman may have all these attractions, be either dark or fair, tall o short, slender or full-formed, grave ofi piquant, majestic or vivacious, seren or brilliant —and unless her own per sonality is eharming, unless she has tact, it dawns on you, after you have seen her once or twice, that she is not a pretty woman, but a pretty doll.