And now we come to the consideration of “luxury.” If we are always to remember the ignorant and the starving, are we never to have anything whose price might have paid teachers or bought bread? Let us hear Ruskin again:—“What of fine dress your people insist upon your wearing, take and wear proudly and prettily for their sakes.” Let us never seek luxury of any sort—let us rather avoid it; but let us still accept it with delight when it comes to us by the hands of genuine love. The diamond in a girl’s engagement ring, the gold locket enclosing her mother’s portrait, the dainty filigree bracelet sent by her brother abroad, the exquisite lace set worked by her dearest friends, are on quite a different line from the fashionable jewellery and ornaments which she buys for herself or teases her relatives to buy for her—as different (with all reverence be it written) as the gift of the alabaster box of precious ointment tendered by a loving woman to her Master is different from the cases of Rimmel’s perfume which are squandered at every ball. And thus we see that the great principle which underlies this vexed “woman’s question” of clothes is the great principle of love itself—love, serving others, considering others; love bestowing, love receiving. Such love needs no law, being itself the highest law. THE ROMANCE OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND; OR, THE OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET. BY EMMA BREWER. CHAPTER III. You want to know where they obtained the money in order to lend it? Well, from all those who had money to deposit—the merchants, the widows and orphans whose small incomes were derived from money lodged with the bankers; these all received a small interest from the goldsmiths, who lent their money again at a much larger interest; so you can see that when the king refused to pay, it was not possible either to return the principal or pay the interest to those of whom they had borrowed. Great was the distress, therefore, not only among the merchants, but among all who had lodged their money with the goldsmiths. The voice of the people grew so loud and angry, that at length Charles found himself compelled to pay the interest, though he never paid back the capital. In 1625 King Charles sent the Duke of Buckingham to Holland to borrow £300,000 on the pledge of the Crown jewels.