The style of dress adopted by ladies of this rank, when abroad, is very superb! Silks and satins of the most approved colours, challis and mousseline-de-laines of the gayest patterns, mantelets, and “Victoria cloaks,” bonnets covered with flowers, silk stockings, parasols of the most fashionable dimensions, gloves of the softest dyes, shoes and boots of every shade, reticules, with tassels and all complete, and pocket handkerchiefs, ornamented with lace in the manner dictated by the changeful goddess, added to a rather exuberant display of _bijouterie_, whose gold is deeply alloyed, and whose gems owe their brightest rays to the aid of different coloured _foils_, serve to increase the charms of the olive-tinged creole beauties. Those of this class who frequent the chapel, and term themselves Methodists, make some slight difference in their apparel. Their bonnets, for example, are divested of flowers on the _outside_, for which they make amends by various twinings and _counter_-twinings of glossy ribbon and cotton lace, and filling their caps—I beg pardon, I mean their _brides_—but I am such an indifferent votary of fashion, that I am ever forgetting her technical terms—their _brides_, then, with such a profusion of flowers, which be they of Amaranthine birth I know not, but I am very sure, they are like nothing earthly—that their eyes, nose, and mouth, just peep forth like sentinels from some guarded fortress. Others, more scrupulous I suppose, discard the use of flowers altogether, and in their room call to their aid snowy _blondes_, and bows and puffs of choicest ribands. Jewellery is also interdicted, although a few of the smarter of the “chapel belles” contrive to smuggle a ring or two, a mock-cameo brooch, or a treble-gilt chain, into their outward adornments. Fashion is, however, worshipped by all. Their bonnets must be of the proper size, their collars and capes of the proper shape, their dresses of the proper length and breadth, and their waists reduced to the proper circumference. But the _sleeves_ of their dresses are the parts appropriated to the display of their most exquisite skill. _One_ poor human brain could never invent the puffings, plaitings, and gatherings; quiltings, flutings, and bandings, which are lavished upon that peculiar portion of their dress; to devise them must be an arduous task, to construct them an herculean labour. The arrangement of their hair is also a work of no trifling nature, and takes up no small portion of their time; and the dealers in oils and pomades derive no small profit from such articles, which are indispensable in making their masses of black locks repose in their proper position.