Dear Ladies:
One of the things you absolutely should not bare, ever, unless you have complete certainty as to the outcome, is your feelings.
Your feelings cannot be purchased, like a new gown, or handed down to your maid once you’re done with them.
Your feelings are yours, forever and always.
And therefore, if you have feelings for another—say, a gentleman has caught your eye, and his eye has been caught by you as well—you should be confident about your feelings, more confident than when you are wearing the gown that looks the absolute best on you.
Feelings, once exposed, cannot be stuffed back into wherever you took them from. They are there, out in the open, just as obvious to another person as the bonnet on top of your head (and such a fetching bonnet!).
Please guard them with your life.
The Fashionable Foible