"Do not trouble yourself, Mademoiselle Ruth, I will have the honor of attending upon Madame de Fleury."
"That is right, Mademoiselle Victorine; but I am going to intrude into your atelier of mysteries, and see what chef d'œuvres you have in progress."
Judging from Madame de Fleury's tone, one might easily have supposed that she alluded to pictures or statues, and was about reverently to enter the studio of some mighty genius, and wonder over his achievements in marble or on canvas. The apartment she invaded was one which visitors were not usually invited, or expected, to enter.
The gentlemen were left together.
"I am in luck!" said Lord Linden in an unusually animated tone. "My dear M. de Bois, I am the happiest of men! I have encountered my unknown beauty at last! She passed me in a private carriage, which stopped here and was dismissed. I saw her enter this house not a quarter of an hour ago. She did not perceive me, and had disappeared before I could accost her; but I determined to keep watch until she made her exit, and then either to renew my acquaintance or to follow her home and learn where she lived. She shall not give me the slip again."
"Are you sure you have not made some mistake? I do not think there is any lady here, at this moment, except Mrs. Gilmer, whom I accompanied."
"I am perfectly certain I could not be mistaken. I shall make some excuse for remaining here; I will select a shawl or mantle for my sister, who is one of this celebrated Mademoiselle Melanie's customers, and who will not be displeased at such an unprecedented attention."
Before M. de Bois could reply, the marchioness returned with Victorine.
"And you say my dress for this evening will be done in an hour? That is delightful! I am impatient to test its effects. I am half inclined to wait until it is finished, and take it home with me."
"It shall be completed within the hour; I am occupied upon it myself," answered Victorine, with a fawning manner, very different from that by which the banker's wife had been kept in subjection.