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opinion on such matters, I said, loftily. And so it was. My
assertion of dignity impressed them.
Then, with characteristic frankness, my young lady shakes out
before me things all frills, embroidery, ribbons, diaphaneity,
which the ordinary man only examines through shopfront windows
when a philosophic mood induces him to speculate on the
unfathomable vanity of woman.
_Les beaux dessous!_ breathed Antoinette.
The same ejaculation, I murmured, was doubtless uttered by an
enraptured waitingmaid, when she beheld the stout linen smocks
of the ladies of the Heptameron.
I reflected on the relativity of things mundane. The waiting
maid no doubt wore some horror made of hemp against her skin. If
Carlotta's gossamer follies had been thrown into the vagabond
court of the Queen of Navarre, I wonder whether those delectable
stories would have been written?
As Antoinette does not understand literary English, and as
Carlotta did not know what in the world I was talking about, I
was master of the conversational situation. Carlotta went to the
mantelpiece and returned with a glutinous mass of sweet stuff
between her fingers.
Will Seer Marcous have some? It is nougat.
I declined.
Oh! she said, tragically disappointed. It is good.
There is something in that silly creature's eyes that I cannot
resist. She put the abominable morsel into my mouthit was far
too sticky for me to holdand laughingly licked her own fingers.
I went down to work again with an uneasy feeling of imperilled
dignity.
May 29th.
I sent her word that I would take her for a drive this afternoon.
She was to be ready at three o'clock. It will be wholesome for
her to regard her outings with me as rare occurrences to be
highly valued. Ordinarily she will go out with Antoinettefor
the present at leastas she did yesterday.
At three o'clock Stenson informed me that the cab was at the
door.
Go up and call Mademoiselle, said I.
In two or three minutes she came down. I have not had such a
shock in my life. I uttered exclamations of amazement in several
languages. I have never seen on the stage or off such a figure
as she presented. Her cheeks were white with powder, her lips
dyed a pomegranate scarlet, her eyebrows and lashes blackened.
In her ears she wore large silvergilt earrings. She entered the
room with an air of triumph, as who should say: See how
captivatingly beautiful I am!
At my stare of horror her face fell. At my command to go
upstairs and wash herself clean, she wept.
For heaven's sake, don't cry, I exclaimed, or you will look
like a rainbow.

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