FEMALE PHYSIQUE. We have been led to make these remarks by the discovery that an attempt is being made to provide muscles for women, or, more correctly speaking, to teach them to use those which they possess-to give them a means of healthful exercise which, we trust, they will adopt; and we may then expect to see fewer pale faces and emaciated figures than at present. It may be said that no such means are wanting, that women in the higher grades of life have ample opportunities of taking all requisite exercise. Perhaps so; but do they use them? No. The false system in our establishments for female education inculcates in them early in life such a habit of bodily indolence that they cannot shake it off upon arriving at years of maturity. To many even a short walk is a task, and the majority, what exercise do they take beyond perhaps the stereotyped "constitutional" ride in the Row," which soon becomes so monotonous as to afford as little diversion to the body as the mind? Such being the case, we cannot but express our pleasure in hearing that at last an amusement has been devised which will give our ladies not only a healthful exercise, but much pleasure. Let us see of what this exercise consists, premising that, as our readers are probably aware, on the Continent things are very different. There are to be found numerous gymnasiums in which women are trained to all kinds of athletic sports- where we find fair damsels of all ages, in elegant and suitable costumes, disporting themselves in dozens, under . 66 the superintendence of a trainer or a traineress. But surely you would not advocate the introduction of such a system in this country? we can hear the shocked English materfamilias say. The idea of any modest woman being dressed in knickerbockers and twisting herself into all kinds of positions in a gymnasium! Bah! it is disgusting! And why! we ask. Is there anything half so horrible in a woman being dressed appropriately, and going through a movement drill" which will bring into healthful play every muscle of her body, give a bloom to her checks, and develop the beauties of her form, as in her going to any one of our theatres to view unblushingly the nakedness of modern ballets, and listening to the barely-covered indecency of modern dramas? We know we shall be called heretics. We know the " proper young woman of the day will read this article with abhorrence, but we also know that we are working in a good cause, and that the day will come ere long when even the greatest prude will go to her drill as regularly as nowadays she does to her studies. Then, and not until then, shall we see that most pernicious of all fashions, tight-lacing, receive its death-blow. Englishwomen will then see what a fearful deformity a small waist really is. The practice of athletics will soon teach them what the human form should be, and they will learn to appreciate the beauty of nature far more than they now admire the deformity of fashion. The Britannia. SECOND PART-IN ENGLAND. CONTAINING THE EVENTS OF TWENTY-TWO YEARS. I. THE reader has now made the acquaintance of at least one of the dramatis persona of this history. It is the object of the second part of the Introduction to make him more or less acquainted with most of the others, and also, to some extent, with a certain English town with which they had much to do. The town is called Denethorp, and is one of a numerous class of places that have been ruined by railways. Once upon a time it was not a mere country town like any other country town. As far back as the reign of Elizabeth it had been famous for its manufacture of woollen fabrics, and its weavers and clothiers formed a privileged class, and were a real power in the land. The curious may still see, in the office of its clerk of the peace, two or three charters, of various degrees of antiquity, conferring upon the place various strange, valueless, and impolitic rights and immunities. For a long time its prosperity continued. Machines became invented and improved; and one of the most celebrated inventors and improvers was a Denethorp man. Then the place improved also. Mills began to be built on every side; new settlers came from a distance; and, what with strikes and machinebreaking, the Recorder of the day began to find his hands quite full. But, when machinery began to be applied to locomotion, and when the country began to find out that the goods which formed the staple of the place were more easily and cheaply obtained from the north than from the south-west, the prosperity of the place simply collapsed, never to be restored. It is difficult now to see what use is fulfilled by its existence, except to provide the neighboring parishes with a market for the purpose of selling corn by sample. It was here, then, in this little town, that, in the days of its modest prosperity, and before those of its vain ambition, "the Doct. r," as he was called by neighbours, or Mr. Warden, as they should have called him, was sitting with his young wife in the parlour of his newly-furnished brick house that stood in the outskirts of the town, and that had a sort of prescriptive right to be the house of the doctor for the time being. He was a young man who had not long since come from Redchester, and had paid money for his practice in Denethorp. It was upon the strength of that practice that he had taken a wife. Young as he was more than thirty server could not have taken him for anything but a country doctor of a well-known but not of the highest type. He was tall and robust, but inclined to fatness, with a red full face that told of much exposure to wind and weather, and with a little of that undefinable look about him that belongs to a man who spends a great deal of his time on horseback as part of his regular day's work. His hands were large and red, but well trimmed and cared for; and his expression — which was by nature that of a good-humoured, easy-going fellow, who would complacently take the good and ill of life, whichever might happen to turn up, without making any particular effort to secure the one or to avoid the other had already acquired something of that unmistakable sort of artificial gravity that is peculiar to and inseparable from the profession of medicine. Women of his own rank of life, which was obviously not very high, who regarded only his number of inches, his curling brown hair, his blue eyes, his white teeth, and his round and jolly voice, were unanimous in thinking the new doctor a handsome man: and, doubtless, his plain, quiet-looking wife, the daughter of a druggist in Redchester, had been of that opinion also. With the men of the place, too, he got on famously. They set him down as a good fellow, and considered him an acquisition to the club of tradesmen that met nightly behind the bar of the King's Head. Thus, what with his personal and social advantages, his youth did not tell much against his professional prospects. Indeed, for that matter, when he first came to Denethorp its inhabitants had to exercise Hobson's choice in the selection of their physician. Patients had either to go to " the Doctor," or else to doctor themselves; and it soon became an understood thing that people must avoid being taken suddenly ill when the hounds met within the reach of a man who kept but one horse. On the whole, it was thought by her friends that Mrs. Warden had done very well indeed for herself and her family in marrying the doctor at Denethorp. It is true that, when she and her husband had become well settled down, she found that she had to spend a good many solitary hours; but that she took as a matter of course. To spend his evenings among his acquaintances, settling the affairs of the world, the nation, and the town, until he had drunk more punch than was quite good for him, was, according to her experience, only a necessary phenomenon of the masculine nature. Her father had always done he could not well be the same; so had her brothers; so had the most unskilled ob-every tradesman and professional man in her native place and, had her experience this friendly. Hope nothing's the matter, been very much wider than it was, she would though?" have found much the same state of things everywhere throughout the kingdom. It was, at all events, a symptom of the time, of which she never complained or dreamed of complaining. 'Nothing but cold, and that you can set right for me without going to the surgery. How snug you are in here! Have you any sisters, Mrs. Warden? Because then Mrs. Warden smiled pleasantly. "Have you looked in at the Head, White?" asked her husband. "For a minute; but it was dull as ditch "Make yourself comfortable, then." "I will. What's the news?" 66 'Oh, there's a good crop of rheumatism just now, and that sort of thing. But between you and I, the place is a bit of a But on this particular evening it was far too cold to tempt the Doctor to turn out unnecessarily, even to go as far as the King's Head. So he contented himself with draw-water. There were only Willet, you know, ing his chair well in to the fire, placing his and old Smith; and I couldn't stand that, big feet on the brightly-polished fender, of course. So as I knew my fire would be mixing himself a stiff tumbler of hot grog, out, I came on to yours." filling his long clay pipe, and so preparing to enjoy a domestic evening with his wife, who was devoting to needle-work all the attention that she could spare from the baby. It must not, however, be supposed that the hour was by any means late. The Doc-sell." tor used to begin his evening as soon as he had dined, supposing that his patients had not kept him from home; and the churchclock had struck no more than four when he took the first sip from his glass. By the time that he had taken a second, a horn was heard, of which the well-known sound announced the arrival of the coach from Redchester. 66 Oh, she can't be so unmerciful as to be confined on such a night—except to the house;" and he laughed at his own joke. "Not bad that; eh, Lorry?" Mrs. Warden smiled, but merely out of sympathy; for anything like a joke was altogether beyond her. "I say, Lorry," he said after a pause of some ten minutes, "this frost is a confounded shame. I meant to have had at least two days. But that's always the way when the meet's hard by and one has just a bit of spare time." Just then the clock struck the quarter: and as this is the whole of the conversation that passed between them in the space of fifteen minutes, it may be fairly assumed that the Doctor belonged to that numerous class who are by no means so sociable at home as they are when abroad. But he was not fated to lose his evening's gossip after all. The clock had not had time to chime another quarter when a knock at the door announced the arrival, cold as the evening was, of a young man of about the same age as the Doctor, but of a smarter and sharper appearance. "Why so? " "One can't make much out of rheumatism. What I like are patients with gout, my boy; they're the sort to pay." "I see." 66 We're not like you lawyers; we can't make patients if they're not ready made." "I don't know about that." "Well, anyhow, it's a poor sort of place, only to have one good family within a dozen miles." "Hm! The old gentleman's coming to be quiet, he says: and Miss must have changed from what she was if we get any fine doings out of her." "What was she, then?" "She wasn't down here much, you know. But she was very odd; and I don't think she and the old gentleman used to pull too well together." "Will of her own, eh?" "And a very queer will too. I don't be"Why, White, my boy!-well, I do call lieve she ever danced since she was born." you "For shame, Mr. White!" said Mrs. Warden. 66 'Why, there were a lot of fellows mad about her, I know; and she'd never speak to one of 'em. And well they might be, for I don't mind saying that I'd give a round plum for her myself if I had it, and be a good many pennies the richer." "Perhaps she did her flirting up in town?" "She was queerer up there than down here." "What did she do there, then?" "I have to see the old gentleman sometimes, you know, up in London; so I've met her at dinner. I sat next a bishop once, at the last election time. I wonder who'll stand for the county now?" "And Miss Clare ?" "It must be a great trial for the poor old gentleman," said the lawyer; and he member for the county, and a good Tory, and all. You'll have two good patients, I expect, in a day or two." How long has she been abroad?" Oh, it's some years now. It was just before those Frenchmen began to play their pranks." 66 Began to as if one didn't know what the French were, ever since -ever since one was born. A cowardly pack of vermin! I wish I had the doctoring of a few." Oh, John!" said Mrs. Warden. give a Frenchman. He wouldn't care to 66 lawyer. 66 Something that'd soon make him bring up his frogs, anyhow." "I thought you meant you'd treat him surgically.' So I would, too. I'd cut his frog-swallowing throat, and hang him up by his own wooden heels; and that's surgical enough, I think." Mr. Warden was certainly beginning to get comfortable. Indeed he was getting remarkably so, when a neat-looking servantgirl entered the room with the unwelcome news - does it not always happen so? that the Doctor was wanted. His first words on being disturbed were about as complimentary to his patients in general as his last had been to the French nation; his next were a distinct refusal to turn out, even if the message had come from Earl's Dene itself-which was not likely, seeing that Mr. Clare was in London and Miss Clare abroad. "But hadn't you better see who it is, John?" asked his wife, quietly. 66 And who the devil is it?" "Tis Dick, ostler from the Head, sir. A lady's been took bad in the coach." Confound her! Couldn't she wait till she got to Sturfield? Well, if I must I must, I suppose. Where is she? At the Head? I daresay it's nothing." With his wife's aid he wrapped himself up, and then, having primed himself with another stiff half-tumbler, he set off towards the market-place, accompanied by the messenger. 66 What is it, do you know, Dick?" "Not I, Doctor, nor nobody. Lady's got a genelman, as is from foreign parts, belike. Leastwise none on us can't make 'em out, not none; not even missus." "Then, Dick, if the missus can't, nobody can.' "Right for you, Doctor. She be a sharp un ! The King's Head was in a state of extraordinary commotion, which hardly calmed down even upon the arrival of the Doctor. The ordinary bustle consequent upon the change of horses was over; but the landlord was staring and whistling in a bewildered way, the chamber-maid was running wildly, and without an object, up and down stairs, and the sharp mistress was scolding everybody impartially, and without reason. One or two habitués of the parlour, whom no weather had been known to keep away "I do, though. I know what dose I'd for twenty years, were both talking at once and giving all sorts of contradictory advice, | women whose husbands at their death have to which no one listened. The Doctor himself was seized upon by the landlady, who at once led him to an up-stairs bedroom. He saw a woman lying upon the bed, a man, whom he guessed to be her husband, standing by her side in a state of helpless distress, and a little girl, of some three or four years of age, crying in a corner. On addressing the man, he found him to be a Frenchman; but, as neither could speak a word of the other's language, the discovery was not of much use. Turning, therefore, his attention to the woman, he saw that she was in a raging fever that would in all probability confine her to her bed for many weeks to come, even if it ever allowed her to leave it alive. Having done what he could under the circumstances - given the landlady such directions as he thought necessary told her not to be alarmed about the expense for a day or two- and had another glass of grog at the bar- he went straight home, and, as he always did under circumstances that at all ran out of the usual groove, consulted his wife. She, as she was apt to do, said little, but did the wisest thing that could be done. She made her husband go to bed, went to bed herself, called at the King's Head early the next morning, and then, without delay, went to see Mrs. Raymond of New Court. -- II. nothing left but to sit down and die for company; and Mrs. Raymond of New Court was one of these women. This excellent lady lost no time in becoming acquainted with the unfortunate strangers, whom she found out to be French refugees trying to make their way to London not because they had friends or prospects there, but just because they knew not where else to go. The child, she learned also, was not a daughter, but an orphan niece of Madame. As much through her care and kindness as through any skill of his, the Doctor's patient recovered; and there would have been no difficulty about his bill even had he made any. And then it ended in Monsieur and Madame Lefort establishing themselves in Denethorp for good and all. They could teach a great many things between them; and so they joined that large army of emigrant teachers with whom those of us who can date back the days of their instruction to the beginning of the century have so many recol lections, half ludicrous, half pathetic. At first, of course, Denethorp did not afford these two very much opening; and they had to thank their patroness for tiding them over a great many early difficulties. In acting thus towards them, the lady of New Court was no doubt mainly moved by the generosity of her heart; but she had another motive. Her little girl, her only surviving child — for, as a mother, she had been as unfortunate as she had deserved to be the reverse -was within a year or two of needing teachers, and the mother could not but feel what an admirable thing it would be to have two persons close at hand who would save her from being obliged to send her child away too soon. In a few years, too, the new prosperity of the town created a class of mill-owners' daughters with an ambition of becoming fine ladies; and a girl-school sprang up in the place which was patronized by many Redchester people. So that, ere long, the position of the foreigners considerably improved. There have been so many good women in the world for everybody knows or has known one, and most people know or have known more than one that it would be unfair and invidious to say of any one woman that she was the best who ever lived. Nevertheless, had all Denethorp and all its neighbourhood been polled on the subject, it would have given an unhesitating and unanimous vote for this Mrs. Raymond. She more than supplied the want of a resident family at Earl's Dene; and if New Court had but little political influence, it had all the love and affection that Earl's They were both young at the time of their Dene wanted. If she had lived beyond arrival; and, not very long after it, Mamiddle age it may safely be said that none dame Lefort bore her husband a daughter, of the complications of this history would who was christened Marie. About ten years ever have been brought about; for nothing afterwards she gave her husband a second with which she had to do was ever known to go wrong. As for her husband, he was anything but a nonentity; he was a most admirable country gentleman and than that what higher praise can be bestowed? but he believed in his wife as much as the rest of their world, or even more, if that had been possible. There are some family, as it were, in the persons of a boy and a girl in giving birth to the latter of whom she, after having been in chronic ill health for some years past, died. Death, indeed, had been busy at Denethorp just then, and had carried away at least three of those who have been mentioned in this chapter-mentioned, appar |