“And the trousseau de madame was magnifique, no doubt?” said mademoiselle, with a little irony in her tone.
“Beautiful simplicity!” laughed Louisa; “I suppose that Mrs. Effingham has met somewhere with the line, ‘Beauty when unadorned adorned the most,’ and has adopted it for her motto!”
“Perhaps,” suggested mademoiselle, “the marchande de modes at Stoneby—”
“Lived in the time of King Pharamond,” interrupted Louisa; “or the bride played marchande de modes herself; or, what is more probable still, employed her school-girls to run up her dresses, and make them true charity pattern! There’s not a flounce or a fringe in the whole set, from the white silk wedding-dress to the neat cotton-print.”
“Cotton-print! est-il possible!” exclaimed mademoiselle, lifting up her hands.
“And the dressing-case—oh!” cried Louisa, bursting into fresh laughter at the recollection.
“Quelque chose très-bizarre—very extraordinary!”
“Ordinary, certainly, without the extra! Brushes, combs, all enclosed in a simple bag, ingeniously made, with many pockets big and little, quite a curiosity of art;—I believe it was one of her wedding presents!”
Arabella and mademoiselle joined in the mirth which this idea inspired.
“I should like to have seen les cadeaux,” observed the latter.