to his wife and daughter. If it is favorably received he sends the lady a bouquet every day, and the courtship begins.

These bouquets are regulated by a strict etiquette, in which the Parisian flower dealer is entirely at home. On the day of the betrothal the flowers must be white, the next a faint shade of pink is allowed, deepening from day to day, until the wedding, when they are purple. Our fair readers will easily comprehend the opportunity for manifestations of sentiment in these daily bouquets, in which the flowers can be made extremely eloquent by judicious selection. Such a courtship might exhaust the resources of the wooer, and the ingenuity of the bouquet maker, if it lasted too long. Usually its duration in the higher ranks is not less than three, nor more than eight weeks, during which the young man is received daily by the parents of his intended bride, as one of the family. On the day when the marriage contract is signed, he presents her a ring, which must be set with one or two pearls, and two diamonds. The costly ring set with sapphires, rubies or emeralds, must be given on the day of marriage, and worn constantly afterwards. The bouquets are usually of the rarest flowers, tied with point lace; or if a ribbon is used, the name of the lady must be embroidered upon it.

In aristocratic families, the first person to be informed of the intended marriage is the Pope, whose blessing upon it is invited, and transmitted by telegraph on the bridal day. If the relatives or acquaintances of the parties are of princely rank, etiquette requires that they should be notified in special letters, sent by a messenger. To avail oneself of the post in such a matter, is highly indecorous, unless the persons addressed reside at a distance. The note must have the arms or the monogram of the sender, and must never under any circumstances, be sealed with black, that color being forbidden in the correspondence of sovereigns, even in cases of mourning.

When the relationship to persons of high rank is intimate, the father must take an early opportunity to call upon them in person, and impart the happy intelligence. Visits are made to the bride and her mother by the relatives and friends of the bridegroom, after receiving the announcement of the engagement; but this duty is con

fined to the near kindred and very intimate friends of the groom.

The description of a bride's outfit in high life, is worthy of a chapter by itself. Money is not to be spared in such matters, and the whole trousseau, in material and make up; must be of the best and choicest description, and impressed throughout with that originality of design in which the French excel.

First upon the list, is usually a dozen complete suits, including stockings, shoes, parasols and bonnets, which with the accompanying linen are usually valued at about fifty thousand francs. The undergarments must be of the finest batiste, and ethereal point lace; the silken chemises whose introduction has been lately attempted have but little favor, with the exception of a "fancy piece," and pale red, or turquoise blue wrappers are trimmed with white point, for use in cold weather, and worn over the night dress. Little morning capuchins of red or azure silk, trimmed with point, are greatly fancied, and form a charming frame for the pretty face of the youthful "queen."

The price of the pocket-handkerchiefs in the outfit, varies from six hundred to a thousand francs a dozen. They are almost imperceptible pieces of batiste, bordered with old Venetian or Brabant point. Ten of the twelve dozen pairs of stockings are of silk, and the other two of Scotch thread. These hose are embroidered and adorned in a thousand fanciful and delicate ways, of which we outside barbarians have scarcely a conception; black with spun glass or gold dust, blue with silver, crimson with seed pearls, &c., &c.

The description of the dresses themselves, must be left to the artists who design them, and who declare that they are a "breath, a light cloud; the fitting inspiration of a poet's finest dream," &c., &c.

The bridal presents are no longer, as in the good old times, hidden away in a fancy basket, trimmed and tied with gay ribbons. The "Corbeille de marriage" is now a sober piece of furniture, of the old style, the more antique the better; a bouffet or cabinet a la Gloffrin, a coffer a la Pon padour; a table with drawers a la Marie Antoinette, into the receptacle of which the bridegroom places a full purse "for the poor." The coffer is filled with cashmere shawls, splendid robes

of point lace, one of white and one of black; two or three silk dresses and as many of different materials, cloaks and wrappings for the bride's evening dress and the ball room.

The indispensable trifles of the bride's basket are elegant fans for full toilettes, fans for society toilettes, perfume bottles, work-boxes, and a case for visiting cards; even confectionery, in dainty cases, is also considered admissible.

But the chief article is an old fashioned casket, garnished with point lace, and lined with velvet, to contain the most precious gifts-fans delicately painted and inlaid with ivory and gold, with pictures a la Watteau, such as the famous ladies of the past delighted to make the screens or the vehicles of a thousand coquetries, necklaces of enamel which may have, far back in the olden time, graced the neck of a princess, girdles of silver chains of the

time of Louis XIV., to which are attached a pencil, a dainty little flagon containing the favorite perfume of the bride, scissors, a little mirror, and a silver egg filled with "poudre de riz." An old basket of Meissner porcelain contains the bride's last bouquet. Large boxes for gloves are made in dull colors, and emblazoned with coats of arms, as in the days of our great grandmothers. A tea service a la Louis Quinze is provided for the especial use of the bride at her private lunch, and is called the "intimate service," and finally there must not lack some costly relic of the olden times, a cup, a ring, or some other trifle which a queen may once have called her own, a memorial of Marie Leczinska, or Marie Antoinette. Bridal presents must have either the arms or the monogram of the bride upon them, or by the latest fashion, her device. For ornaments she requires two sets of jewels, and a watch and chain with fancy charms. Lately pearls are mostly in request, and a set of them not unfrequently costs five hun dred thousand francs or more. Besides these presents, which the bride must receive from her husband only, she expects many from her relations and friends. The offensive ostentation of parading bridal presents for show is no longer admissible in good society; the bride simply thanks the giver, and that part of the business is ended. The mother presents her daughter with all her own fancy jewelry, and often a part of her diamonds.

Thus the young queen enters into her kingdom, through the gateway of costly splendors, worthy indeed of "Her Highness, the woman," her way strewn with flowers, her fair brow covered with radiant jewels, and the air about her redolent of the choicest perfumes; her ears filled with the delicate flatteries, the graceful compliments which the French language seems to have been invented to express, and which she in her turn will doubtless bestow upon others, as a queen showers benefits upon her subjects. The world of which she has hitherto caught only fugitive glimpses is now open before her; and if she is pretty and agreeable, homage and incense will not be wanting, in spite of the fact that in France the woman does not reign, but -governs.

The transition from France to Italy, is scarcely perceptible. Pass

ing along the shores of the Mediterranean from the sunny south of France to the Ligurian coast, little change of scenery is visible. And yet, the traveler has no sooner entered the Italian states, than another world seems to surround him, and in no particular is the distinction more marked than in the differences between the French and Italian women. Social intercourse and connections, and historic events have alike failed to assimilate the characters and habits of these two branches of the Latin race, so nearly related, yet so widely apart. In historical directions it is interesting to observe, that in the sunny land of the Hesperides, the favorite home of genius and art, the centre for ages of the powers that have ruled the world, the paradise in which the charms of nature and the fancy of the inhabitants contend for the ideal life, woman in social respects plays, and has played, a very insignificant part. Outside of the families of the petty princes of Italy, it is difficult to find a prominent female character-a single woman whose influence upon the destinies of the world has been known and recognized. Forms like that of the gloomy daughter of the Medicis, immortal in the infamy of St. Bartholomew's, of the mysterious Beatrice Cenci, whose glance backward upon the world she was leaving, seems destined to be reflected through generations who know only her name and her sad, sweet beauty; or of the daughter of the worst of all the popes, the beautiful Lucretia Borgia, damned to eternal fame by her crimes, start out here and there from the pages of the Italian chronicles, but neither they nor any others of their fair sisters have left any but a baleful memory behind them. The The power which their position, their talents, or their beauty have given them, has been devoted to the worst ends. They are like the Hindoo god-· desses, the terrible Bohwani, mighty only to destroy. The division of the Italian peninsula, itself hardly large enough for a respectable kingdom, into a host of petty States, each jealous of, and hostile to the others, obliged to compass by treachery and crime the ends which were beyond their feeble strength in open manly struggles, has no doubt had much to do with shaping the character, and restricting the influence of the Italian women. Their spheres have been too restricted in the narrow circles of their homes to allow them to acquire either