Mothers can not be too careful how they leave their children with even well-meaning servants. A young girl’s body is more sensitive than any harp is to the air that plays upon it. Nature--free, uneducated, and direct--responds to every touch on that seat of the nerves, the bosom, by an excitement that is simply ruinous to a child’s nervous system. This is pretty plain talking, but no plainer than the subject demands. Girls are very different in their feelings. Some affectionate, innocent, hearty natures remain through their lives as simple as when they were babes taking their bath under their mothers’ hands; while others, equally innocent but more susceptible, require to be guarded and sheltered even from the violence of a caress as if from contagion and pain. Due attention to the general health always has its effect in restoring the bust to its roundness. It is a mistake that it is irremediably injured by nursing children. A babe may be taught not to pinch and bite its mother, and the exercise of a natural function can injure her in no way, if proper care is taken to sustain the system at the same time. Cold compresses of wet linen worn over the breast are very soothing and beneficial, provided they do not strike a chill to a weak chest. At the same time, the cincture should be carefully adjusted. Weakness of any kind affects the contour of the figure, and it is useless to try to improve it in any other way than by restoring the strength where it is wanting. Tepid sitz-baths strengthen the muscles of the hips, and do away with that dragging which injures the firmness of the bosom. Bathing in water to which ammonia is added strengthens the skin, but the use of camphor to dry the milk after weaning a child is reprehensible. No drying or heating lotions of any kind should ever be applied except in illness. CHAPTER XXIII. Hands and Complexions.--Preparing for Parties.--Refining Rough Faces.--Carbolic Baths.--Chalk and Cascarilla.--Glycerine Wash.--School-girls’ Flushed Hands and Faces.--To Soften the Hands.--Red Noses.--Secrets of Making-up.--Cologne for the Eyes.--Cosmetic Gloves.--To Impart a Brilliant Complexion.