Lady Blessington--Lady Dalmeny 101 Two Coiffures--Early Victorian Styles 102 In the Nineteenth Century 103 The Austrian Peasant-Bride in Black 123 A Croatian Peasant 124 A Croatian Peasant 125 A Greek Peasant in Mediæval Days 127 A Greek Peasant--A Greek Peasant Woman--A Greek Priest--A Greek Brigand 128 A Westphalian Peasant 142 A Hungarian Peasant in the Seventeenth Century 144 A Chinese Actor 152 A Chinese Peasant 153 An Egyptian Peasant Woman 159 An Egyptian Water-Carrier 160 An Egyptian Peasant 161 An Old Indian Festival Dress 165 A Botticelli Dancing-Dress 181 An Eighteenth-Century Pierrot 183 A South Sea Islander 186 The Knave of Diamonds 187 Miss Ellen Terry as Mistress Page 239 George Alexander as Guy Domville 245 Julian L'Estrange as Hermes 247 Beerbohm Tree as Malvolio 249 Miss Constance Collier as Viola 251 Miss Gertrude Elliot as Desdemona 253 Véronique 255 CHAPTER I IN CLASSIC TIMES Fashion, even under exalted patronage, had scant chance to distinguish herself in the bad old days of the Romans. She, who now must be obeyed, was forced then to take a back seat enwrapped in the toga, and all who would have preached or practised the doctrine of diversified dress remained mute, inglorious modistes. It is not on record that any great personage invented any particular garment, or was accorded the honour of standing godmother to a favoured style. Such privileges as those of Queen Alexandra, who, at the indiscretion of any draper, may be sponsor to a ruffle or a petticoat, or of Queen Victoria Eugénie, whose name has been snatched to honour a face-cream, were not in vogue. This seems a pity when one comes to consider the alliterative allurement of such a title as the "Boadicean blouse," and to remember that the "Poppæan pomade," which might have been justified in the observance, was deliberately committed in the breach.