4-208 (Original)

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Last of all the farewell festivities was the complimentary ball to Lady Carrington on 30th ult. in the Centennial Hall [Sydney] when the strange, weird element was largely eliminated (as I predicted) though your Sappho did see a lady sharing her chair with a gentleman at the supper-table, and one unconventional couple taking a short-cut across the dais while their 'Excellencies' were in possession. [99] Nearly a thousand attended, and there was a soothing surplus of men. . - The decorations were arranged on the same principle as the club balls, immense palms everywhere, festoons of greenery and wreaths of Lady Carrington's favourite actinotus and two little singing canaries were suspended on either side of the dais. An excellent supper was served in the lower chamber, and the table decorations - large hearts in cream and crimson roses - were gaspingly nice. And so were some of the dresses. Lady Carrington . - - wore heliotrope silk, chiffon, and wisteria, diamond ornaments, heliotrope shoes, and immense committee bouquet;. . - Lady Innes wore a charming turn-out - the train of striped buttercup silk, the front trimmed and draped with fine tinted lace, sleeves and bodice trimming of chiffon caught with yellow bows, magnificent diamonds.
Mrs Vanderveer Greene sported a Mephistophiles gown that carried all before it. And, let me add, while among the 'un-nervers', that a scarlet bag frock trimmed with villainously green fringe; a pink satin green-away gown on a lady considerably over seven, and the large, imposing creature in slick white satin that increased her width to amazement-point, most harrowed the instincts of your slim Sappho. [...]
Quite the newest idea in ball-skirts is the semi-circular hem - in which the floor-end of the garment is cut in a bold scoop frontally, rising about four inches on each side just at the ankles - for the purpose of displaying the same to public criticism, I suppose, though no doubt Mary tells Mamma that the dressmaker says it makes the gown hang better. A lady wore one at Tempe ball. The gown was ecru tulle and emerald-green velvet, and the scoop revealed a pair of tiny white satin shoes, producing a charming effect, even if you did think that the wearer had her petticoats clutched in both hands, under the delusion that she was hopping over a mud-puddle. But the skirtal scoop should be adopted lingeringly. Decollete commenced with a little two-inch snip in a high-necked gown, and if skirts begin to get hitched up at the sides, the modest young man of the future will have to go round in mask. No girl who possessed a special pair of garters would be satisfied to show only to the tops of her boots.
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