CHAPTER X.

SHOES.

MEN condemn and criticize the very things in their own wives and sisters that they run after and admire in the sisters and wives of other men.   One of their great "hobbies" is "common-sense" shoes.   They advocate them and insist upon their wives and sisters wearing them, yet were they ever known to say a lady had a pretty foot that was seen in a commonsense shoe?   Never!   The nearest they get to it is :   "What a lovely foot that woman has! if she would only take off that French heel and wear a common-sense shoe! "   Poor things,   they   don't know that only the French shoe can show the outlines of a pretty foot.   Men are so peculiar.   They talk of their admiration for sensible girls, condemn paint, powder, small waists and French heels, and at the same time their most serious attentions are given to girls de voted to all of the frivolities known to the fair sex. Just as long as men go on--but I digress.   My subject is shoes, not men.   Wear the shoe that fits you, whether common sense or uncom mon sense, as probably a French shoe will never be called sensible, no matter how perfectly it fits the foot.   There are many ladies with a high instep and. arched foot that can find no comfort in any other style of shoe. A conspicuously high heel, however, is not graceful or in good taste. A shoe to be comfortable must be the shape of the foot and the size of it--no smaller, no larger.   A shoe loose enough for the foot to slip around will cause "corns" just as surely as will a shoe that cramps the foot.   If your foot is broad, flat and of low instep, wear "common-sense" shoes.   If arched and high instep, a "Spanish arched" shoe is more comfortable.   It is ridiculous to suppose that every woman can wear comfortably the style termed "common sense." It is just as impossible as for the lady with a broad, flat, low instep foot to succeed in fitting her foot to the Spanish arched shoe.   Then wear the style of shoe that fits you.   If it be "common sense," take comfort in the thought that, while your foot will not rank as being pretty, you will be quoted as a sensible girl or woman.   If it be a French shoe, while your foot receives all the admiration it should have, there may be times when your good taste and mental calibre will need defending.