[THE MESSAGE OF THE MARGUERITES.]
(See Coloured Frontispiece.)
This "ladie fayre" ascending the stairway of the old Castle of Blois in France gives us a glimpse of the prevailing fashion of towering head-dress worn in the fifteenth century. Addison satirically remarks that, "Women in all ages have taken more pains than men to adorn the outside of their heads." This adornment surely reached its culmination when ladies adopted these wonderful erections called fontanges, which, we are told by an ancient writer, were "like pointed steeples, with loose kerchiefs atop hanging down sometimes as low as the ground."
As we look at the cooing doves in the castle window, we see an indication of a weighty matter which rests upon the lady's mind. She is gazing out over the distant woods to catch a glimpse of her lover returning from the chase. She would fain believe that her true knight cares for no one but herself, but how can she be sure?
In the castle garden she has culled a bunch of marguerites, and now she is on her way to her own secret bower there to try her fortune. As she pulls to pieces the fateful flowers she will murmur softly, "He loves me a little, he loves me much, he loves me passionately, he loves me not."
Let us hope the message will be propitious, and that when she descends the stairs it will be to receive her lover with a smiling trustful face, and that he will prove worthy of one so fair and sweet.
GIRL'S OWN PAPER. Orford Smith, Ld. St. Albans. LONDON.
The message of the Marguerites.
From the Painting by COMTE.