Caroline shrank back with a faint, sick feeling. Oh, how everything had changed since she was so fascinated by a scene like that! Her delicate, proud nature revolted from the splendid confusion. From her very heart she loathed the sumptuous garments with which Olympia had hoped to tempt her.
"Is there no hope?" she cried, desperately. "I would rather suffer anything than undertake this part!"
"Hope? Yes, there is everything to hope. The house is crowded already. There never was so fine an opening. Come, make ready!"
"Not if I have the power to resist."
She spoke in a low but resolute voice, which frightened Olympia, who stood gazing at the pale young face turned upon her with a frown of terrible anger gathering on her forehead.
"Caroline, you cannot resist. My word is given, the contract signed, my honor pledged. Would you disgrace me forever?"
"Your honor pledged, and I belong to you," said the girl. "I see, I see—there is no escaping! It is my miserable destiny!"
Caroline took off the cloak in which she was wrapped, flung down all her magnificent hair, and seated herself before one of the mirrors.
"Do with me as you please," she said, turning a weary glance upon the mirror. "It may be my death, but you will have it so."
The next moment that unhappy girl found herself in the hands of a clever French maid, who fairly revelled in her task, as she shook out that rich mass of hair, and held it up for the light to shine through. But Caroline took no heed. The toilet only reminded her of that most hideous one when Marie Antoinette was prepared for the scaffold. For the moment she almost wished it possible to change places with that unhappy woman.