'We three are engaged in one cause, I snuffs, I smokes, and I chaws.' THE WOMEN Let me picture for you a lady of this time in the language of those learned in dress, and you will see how much it may benefit. 'We see her coming afar off; against the yew hedge her weeds shine for a moment. We see her figuretto gown well looped and puffed with the monte-la-haut. Her echelle is beautiful, and her pinner exquisitely worked. We can see her commode, her top-not, and her fontage, for she wears no rayonne. A silver pin holds her meurtriers, and the fashion suits better than did the creve-coeurs. One hand holds her Saxon green muffetee, under one arm is her chapeau-bras. She is beautiful, she needs no plumpers, and she regards us kindly with her watchet eyes.' A lady of this date would read this and enjoy it, just as a lady of to-day would understand modern dress language, which is equally peculiar to the mere man. For example, this one of the Queen of Spain's hats from her trousseau (curiously enough a trousseau is a little bundle): 'The hat is a paille d'Italie trimmed with a profusion of pink roses, accompanied by a pink chiffon ruffle fashioned into masses bouillonnee arranged at intervals and circled with wreaths of shaded roses.' [Illustration: {Two women of the time of William and Mary}] The modern terms so vaguely used are shocking, and the descriptive names given to colours by dress-artists are horrible beyond belief--such as Watteau pink and elephant grey, not to speak of Sevres-blue cherries. However, the female mind delights in such jargon and hotch-potch. Let me be kind enough to translate our William and Mary fashion language. 'Weeds' is a term still in use in 'widow's weeds,' meaning the entire dress appearance of a woman. A 'figuretto gown looped and puffed with the monte-la-haut' is a gown of figured material gathered into loops over the petticoat and stiffened out with wires 'monte-la-haut.' The 'echelle' is a stomacher laced with ribbons in rungs like a ladder. Her 'pinner' is her apron. The 'commode' is the wire frame over which the curls are arranged, piled up in high masses over the forehead. The 'top-not' is a large bow worn at the top of the commode; and the 'fontage' or 'tower' is a French arrangement of alternate layers of lace and ribbon raised one above another about half a yard high. It was invented in the time of Louis XIV., about 1680, by Mademoiselle Fontage. The 'rayonne' is a cloth hood pinned in a circle. The 'meurtriers,' or murderers, are those twists in the hair which tie or unloose the arrangements of curls; and the 'creve-coeurs' are the row of little forehead curls of the previous reign. A 'muffetee' is a little muff, and a 'chapeau-bras' is a hat never worn, but made to be carried under the arm by men or women; for the men hated to disarrange their wigs. [Illustration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]