Of course, this is not put in so many words, but it is a kind of tacit understanding, and half the confidences that pass between Mrs. Meanwell and her “dearest friends” bear on the absorbing topic of costume. She recognises it as an important social factor—and so do all the husbands and fathers when the dressmakers’, drapers’, and milliners’ bills come in. But Mrs. Meanwell’s friends, especially her “dearest” ones, have appointed her the arbiter of taste in costume, and, unfortunately for their husbands’ pockets, her ruling is governed by a superb optimism, which, as the dictionary defines, is “the doctrine that everything is ordered for the best”—and, of course, the best has to be paid for. Economy is, in Mrs. Meanwell’s opinion, a revolt against good taste, and her friends are easily persuaded by her superior logic, and those picturesque proofs of her judgment which their dressmakers turn out. From the husband’s point of view, however, there is something to be said. Mrs. Meanwell, as “dearest friend,” is an expensive luxury for the wife. But then, after all, perhaps, a female “dearest friend” is safer than a male one, and, if there be also a male one, she acts as a sort of safety-valve to let off those little romantic confidences which might not amuse the husband, yet which might possibly lead eventually to complications if suppressed in the wife’s bosom, or entrusted to the loyal keeping of the male “dearest friend.” Therefore, Mrs. Meanwell conquers the economic considerations of the husbands, and remains the “dearest friend” of the wives, because of her approved worldly wisdom. And, after all, if they be a little extravagant, their wives look ever so much better when Mrs. Meanwell advises their costumes. And—well, it is very pleasant to have a charming little woman like Mrs. Meanwell coming frequently to the house, and staying there. _A “FIN-DE-SIÈCLE” WOMAN_ The habit of credulity is one of my peculiarities; some people indeed regard it as a fatal weakness, especially when it leads me to place implicit faith in women. Nevertheless I cannot bring myself to take Mrs. Reuben Neuralys quite seriously in all her social and psychical vagaries.