The re g ard felt by the friends of the Brineeas Helena
for that amiable bride has chiefly taken the formof jewellery—diamonds, rubies, sapphires, turquoises enough to furnish a West-End shop. The King and Queen of the Belgians indulge in sentiment, having put "Souvenir" in turquoises on their gold band bracelet. So does -the Princess, Louis .of Hesse, who has set her "A. L" in diamonds and rubies in the centre of a heart-shaped crystallocket, and so-does Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Mecklenburg, who has put " Salve " diamonds on the blue enamel centre of a circular gold locket. On the whole, the great people seem to feel as much difficulty and to show as little resource in wedding presents as the small. We once heard a man complain of laving a small shopful of bronze ornaments presented to him, another of having received twelve dial-pieces,—a good supply for a middling-sized watchmaker—and-another, with less opulent relatives, of having the range of six butter knives; but the Princess Helena will be persevering and conscientious if she wears all this jewellery once before she dies. The mutilation of the same kind of wedding presents certainly diminishes the gratification to the instinct of property. If the contents of an ironmonger's shop were emptied at the feet of a middle-class bride, we do not think her (pleas are would be 103 great as her embarrassment; and there is no great difference between having a vast superfluity of lockets ands vast superfluity of fenders.
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