Beauty likes to be Admired.
Yes—that is true, and I don't blame beauty a bit. Nevertheless ladies who are not gifted with this great glory, prim, demure women, with prim, demure ways, may look sadly sour and say, “That Miss So-and-so thinks she is entrancing, and maybe she is good-looking after a fashion, but I feel sure she spends quite a deal of her time indoors attitudinising and gavotting before the looking-glass, and she can't pass a shop window without using it as a mirror to note how she looks.” Well, for the life of me I cannot see any harm in Miss So-and-so's turning a shop window into a mirror if she chooses. Her mind is thus satisfied. That dress does hang nicely, and she carries herself well in it.
As to Miss So-and-so spending some time before the mirror at home, the Misses Prim can only be reasoning from analogy. They themselves doubtless do the same, but it is as a forlorn hope and in order to see if there be anything about their faces and figures analogous to beauty.
But Miss So-and-so is right again. What are mirrors made for, I wonder, if not to study before, to study attitude, the set of the head, the proper use of lips and eyes, and the contour of the neck. Indeed, indeed, I'm all on beauty's side.
But in this, as in all other matters, there is a danger of over-doing it. It is quite proper to assure yourself that you look your best, but it is unwise to think too much of the matter, or to allow yourself to become a piece of human vanity.