To retain your graceful form, then, learn how to carry yourself. If women would be more careful about this while young, they would have finer figures and more slender hips when older. The woman who holds herself straight, who does not draw her chin to the collar of her garment, who keeps back her shoulder-blades, and thus rounds out her bust, without an apparent effort keeps her muscles firm and flexible and the desired curve in place of flatness. Thus the heaviness which is so much dreaded, and which destroys all youthfulness and grace, may be avoided.
The woman who holds herself well, who throws the weight of her body on her hips (this cannot be too often repeated), instead of allowing it to be supported by the abdomen, has the carriage of a queen, the walk of a nymph. Do not fear that you will acquire a haughty expression. On the contrary, if your eyes are tender and your smile is amiable, your proud grace will not make you unsympathetic.
I do not mean by this that you should carry your head like a peacock, or stiffen yourself, or strut; but hold the bust in the firm and straight position which nature designed, whether you walk, or sit, or stand. By following this advice you will stoop or lean with a thousand times more grace and flexibility than a woman who relaxes, bends, rounds her back from a mere habit of indifference.