"Quite true," said Lady Farley; "and what more can the heart and flesh of fashionable woman desire?"
"Several things. For instance, my cup of happiness will not overflow till I have a diamond tiara. Now there you have the advantage of me."
"But you cannot have a tiara without having a husband as well; and there you have the advantage of me."
"I shall not have the advantage of you long." And Isabel laughed.
"No; but you will then have the tiara in place of the advantage."
"One of my chief reasons in getting married is to secure to myself the right of wearing a tiara," remarked Isabel, "I consider that a woman of thirty without a tiara is as indecent as a woman of ninety without a cap. Women must be crowned with either youth or diamonds, or else must hide their diminished heads under the cloak of religion, and retire into nunneries and sisterhoods."
"My dear, you are too sarcastic for so young a person; no unmarried woman should ever say nasty things—unless she is a professional beauty. Still, I hope you will enjoy the Concert to-night, in spite of the shame of your uncovered head."
"I am thankful it is a Concert and not a Ball. If it were a Ball, I should have to talk to Wrexham all evening; but now I can keep silence, and let the dear man feast his eyes upon the beauties of my irregular profile, instead of feasting his ears upon the charms of my still more irregular conversation."
"Then poor Wrexham will come badly off to-night," said Lady Farley; "for your conversation is infinitely superior to your profile, my dear."
"I know it is; but I wish you would not tread upon my toes—or, more correctly, upon my nose—so ruthlessly. It is simply fiendish to throw a woman's nose in her teeth in that fashion."