I must, however, render M. Herbault the justice to say, that he evinced no ordinary tact in suggesting certain alterations in his _chapeaux_ and caps, in order to suit my face; and, aided by the inimitable good taste of the Duchesse, who passes for an oracle in _affaires de modes à Paris_, a selection was made that enabled me to leave M. Herbault's, looking a little more like other people. From his Temple of Fashion we proceeded to the _lingère à la mode_, Mdlle. La Touche, where _canezous_ and _robes de matin_ were to be chosen and ordered; and we returned to the Hôtel de la Terrasse, my head filled with notions of the importance of dressing _à la mode_, to which yesterday it was a stranger, and my purse considerably lightened by the two visits I had paid. Englishwomen who have not made their purchases at the houses of the _marchandes de modes_ considered the most _recherché_ at Paris, have no idea of the extravagance of the charges. Prices are demanded that really make a prudent person start; nevertheless, she who wishes to attain the distinction so generally sought, of being perfectly well dressed, which means being in the newest fashion, must submit to pay largely for it. Three hundred and twenty francs for a crape hat and feathers, two hundred for a _chapeau à fleurs_, one hundred for a _chapeau négligé de matin_, and eighty-five francs for an evening-cap composed of tulle trimmed with blonde and flowers, are among the prices asked, and, to my shame be it said, given. It is true, hats, caps, and bonnets may be had for very reasonable prices in the shops in the Rue Vivienne and elsewhere at Paris, as I and many of my female compatriots found out when I was formerly in this gay capital; but the bare notion of wearing such would positively shock a lady of fashion at Paris, as much as it would an English one, to appear in a hat manufactured in Cranbourn Alley. Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates. Having noticed the extravagance of the prices, it is but fair to remark the elegance and good taste of the millinery to be found at Monsieur Herbault's. His _chapeaux_ look as if made by fairy fingers, so fresh, so light, do they appear; and his caps seem as if the gentlest sigh of a summer's zephyr would bear them from sight, so aerial is their texture, and so delicate are the flowers that adorn them, fresh from the _ateliers_ of Natier, or Baton. Beware, O ye uxorious husbands! how ye bring your youthful brides to the dangerous atmosphere of Paris, while yet in that paradise of fools ycleped the honey-moon, ere you have learned to curve your brows into a frown, or to lengthen your visages at the sight of a long bill.