quet. My dress is certainly not paid for, but uncle do Bassompierre will pay it in the bill: he never notices items, but just looks at the total; and he is so rich, one need not care about a few guineas more or less".
"Will you go, I want to shut the door.... Ginerva, people may tell you you are very handsome in that ball-attire; but, in my eyes, you will never look so pretty as you did in the gingham gown and plain straw bonnet you wore when I first saw you".
"Other people have not your puritanical tastes"; was her angry reply. "And besides, I see no right you have to sermonize me".
"Certainly! I have little right; and you, perhaps, have still less to come flourishing and fluttering into my chamber—a mere jay in borrowed plumes. I have not the least respect for your feathers, Miss Fanshawe; and especially the peacock's eyes, you call a parure; very pretty things, if you had brought them with money which was your own, and which you could well spare, but not at all pretty under present circumstances".
"On est là pour Mademoiselle Fanshawe!" was announced by the portress, and away she slipped.
The semi-mystery of the parure was not solved till two or three days afterwards, when she came to make a voluntary confession.
"You need not be sulky with me", she began, "in the idea that I am running somebody, papa or M. de Bassompierre, deeply into debt. I assure you nothing remains unpaid for, but the few dresses I have lately had: all the rest is settled".
"There", I thought, "lies the mystery, considering they were not given you by Mrs. Cholmondeley, and that your own means are limited to a few shillings, of which I know you to be excessively careful".
"Ecoutez!", she went on, drawing near and speaking in her most confidential and coaxing tone; for my "sulkiness" was inconvenient to her: she liked me to be in a talking and listening mood, even if I only talked to chide, and listened to rail. "Ecoutez, chère grogneuse! I will tell you all how and about it; and you will then see, not only how right the whole thing is, but how cleverly managed. In the first place, I must go out. Papa himself said that he wished me to see
