CHAPTER VII
[MISTRESS AND MAID]
"Dionetta?"
"Yes, my lady."
The maid and her mistress were in Adelaide's dressing-room, and Dionetta was brushing her lady's hair, which hung down in rich, heavy waves.
She smiled at herself in the glass before which she was sitting, and her mood became more joyous as she noted the whiteness of her teeth and the beautiful expression of her mouth when she smiled. There was an irresistible fascination in her smile; it flashed into all her features, like a laughing sunrise.
She was never tired of admiring her beauty; it was to her a most precious possession of which nothing but time could rob her. "To-day is mine," she frequently said to herself, and she wished with all her heart that there were no to-morrow.
Yes, to-day was hers, and she was beautiful, and, gazing at the reflection of her fair self, she thought that she did not look more than eighteen.
"Do you think I do, child?" she asked of Dionetta.
"Think you do what, my lady?" inquired Dionetta.