“Lovely, charmante!... Juana, come and dress this hair,” said Pilar to the maid, who was famous as a hair-dresser.
“Be clever now; something simple. Just a knot that we may judge of the effect of the hat.”
Juana quickly unfastened María’s plaits to begin her work, while María, after looking at herself for a few minutes, fixed her eyes on her lap and seemed to be praying in silence. She had seen her marble shoulders and snowy throat and the sight had filled her with conscientious alarms. Perhaps the reaction might have spurred her to resistance. If an arrow shot from her mother’s well-aimed bow had not diverted her thoughts.
“When I look at you, my darling, it is incredible to me how that red-haired Pepa Fúcar....”
María’s jealousy started her into life again as a jaded horse is roused by the spur. Her eyes flashed as they saw themselves in the glass. “How lovely God has made us!” they seemed to say. She turned her head from side to side, looking out of the corner of her eye to see as much as she could of her profile. Yes, it was a fair vision! her paleness was becoming; she might have been taken for a convalescent love-sick angel.
In no time at all Juana had dressed her hair high, so perfectly becoming to María’s face and shape that the most famous coiffeur could have done no better; it was hailed with an exclamation of surprise, and María herself gazed in admiration, though she could not smile. Then, having induced her to return to the room where stood a large pier glass, they dressed her in a long princess gown, not an easy operation now that her hair was done.
“Oh! how handsome she is! odious creature,” cried the owner of the garment with a pinch of envy. “Now the mantle; we will try this cashmere wrap with embroidery and a fringe. It was made by a disciple of Worth’s.”
María obeyed blindly, allowing herself to be dressed, watching the process in the glass with anxious eyes, and involuntarily giving herself the moods and attitudes which were needed. The maid held up the light to show the charming picture.
“Now for the hat!”