"Oh!" She was radiant. "But you haven't hurried too much? Are we really starting back?"
Monsieur Raudel, who was a new man when he wasn't cold, reassured her, and soon they were all packed in the Renault, and running out of Tréves.
CHAPTER IX
THE CRINOLINE
That same night as dusk fell she shook the snow from her feet and clothes and entered the dressmaker's kitchen. Four candles were burning beside the gas, and the tea-cups lay heaped and unwashed upon the dresser.
"Good-evening, good-evening," murmured a number of voices, German and French, and the old dressmaker, standing up, her face haggard under the gas, took both Fanny's hands with a whimper:
"It will never be done! Oh, dear child, it will never be done!"
The crinoline which they were preparing lay in white rags upon the table.
"Oh, Elsa, that is good! Are you helping too?" Elsa had brought three of her friends with her, and the four bright, bullety heads bent over the long frills which moved slowly through their sewing fingers. "Good Conquered Children!" They were sewing like little machines.
"The Fräulein Schneiderin," explained Elsa, "is so upset."