AFTER the brilliant success which attended,in the spring of last year, our volume onThe Fan—a success which was the result,as I cannot conceal from myself, much more of theoriginal conception and decorative execution of thatwork of luxe than of its literary interest—I havedetermined to close this series of Woman’s Ornamentsby a last little work on the protective adornments ofthat delicate being, as graceful as she is gracious:The Sunshade, the Glove, the Muff. This collection,therefore, of feminine toys will be limited totwo volumes, a collection which at first sight appearedto us so complex and heavy that a dozenvolumes at least would have been required to containits principal elements. This, doubtless, on the onehand, would have tried our own constancy, and onthe other, would have failed in fixing more surelythe inconstancy of our female readers. The spirithas its freaks of independence, and the unforeseen oflife ought to be carefully economised. Moreover, totell the whole truth, the decorative elegance of a booklike the present hides very often beneath its printsthe torture of an intellectual thumbscrew. Theunhappy author is obliged to confine his exuberantideas in a sort of strait-jacket in order to slip themmore easily through the varied combinations of pictorialdesign, which here rules, an inexorable Mentor,over the text.