But to bed! to bed!] I have had a busy day; engaged during the greater portion of it in the momentous occupation of shopping.

Every thing belonging to my toilette is to be changed, for I have discovered--"tell it not in Gath"-- that my hats, bonnets, robes, mantles, and pelisses, are totally _passee de mode_, and what the _modistes_ of Italy declared to be _la derniere mode de Paris_ is so old as to be forgotten here.
The woman who wishes to be a philosopher must avoid Paris! Yesterday I entered it, caring or thinking as little of _la mode_ as if there were no such tyrant; and lo! to-day, I found myself ashamed, as I looked from the Duchess de Guiche, attired in her becoming and pretty _peignoir a la neige_ and _chapeau du dernier gout_, to my own dress and bonnet, which previously I had considered very wearable, if not very tasteful.
Our first visit was to Herbault's, the high-priest of the Temple of Fashion at Paris; and I confess, the look of astonishment which he bestowed on my bonnet did not help to reassure my confidence as to my appearance.
The Duchesse, too quick-sighted not to observe his surprise, explained that I had been six years absent from Paris, and only arrived the night before from Italy.

I saw the words _a la bonne heure_ hovering on the lips of Herbault, he was too well-bred to give utterance to them, and immediately ordered to be brought forth the choicest of his hats, caps, and turbans.
Oh, the misery of trying on a new _mode_ for the first time, and before a stranger! The eye accustomed to see the face to which it appertains enveloped in a _chapeau_ more or less large or small, is shocked at the first attempt to wear one of a different size; and turns from the contemplation of the image presented in the glass with any thing but self-complacency, listening incredulously to the flattering encomiums of the not disinterested _marchand de modes_, who avers that "_Ce chapeau sied parfaitement a Madame la Comtesse, et ce bonnet lui va a ravir_." I must, however, render M.Herbault the justice to say, that he evinced no ordinary tact in suggesting certain alterations in his _chapeaux_ and caps, in order to suit my face; and, aided by the inimitable good taste of the Duchesse, who passes for an oracle in _affaires de modes a Paris_, a selection was made that enabled me to leave M.Herbault's, looking a little more like other people.
From his Temple of Fashion we proceeded to the _lingere a la mode_, Mdlle.

La Touche, where _canezous_ and _robes de matin_ were to be chosen and ordered; and we returned to the Hotel de la Terrasse, my head filled with notions of the importance of dressing _a la mode_, to which yesterday it was a stranger, and my purse considerably lightened by the two visits I had paid.
Englishwomen who have not made their purchases at the houses of the _marchandes de modes_ considered the most _recherche_ at Paris, have no idea of the extravagance of the charges.

Prices are demanded that really make a prudent person start; nevertheless, she who wishes to attain the distinction so generally sought, of being perfectly well dressed, which means being in the newest fashion, must submit to pay largely for it.
Three hundred and twenty francs for a crape hat and feathers, two hundred for a _chapeau a fleurs_, one hundred for a _chapeau neglige de matin_, and eighty-five francs for an evening-cap composed of tulle trimmed with blonde and flowers, are among the prices asked, and, to my shame be it said, given.
It is true, hats, caps, and bonnets may be had for very reasonable prices in the shops in the Rue Vivienne and elsewhere at Paris, as I and many of my female compatriots found out when I was formerly in this gay capital; but the bare notion of wearing such would positively shock a lady of fashion at Paris, as much as it would an English one, to appear in a hat manufactured in Cranbourn Alley.
Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates.
Having noticed the extravagance of the prices, it is but fair to remark the elegance and good taste of the millinery to be found at Monsieur Herbault's.