"Give me a cloak," interrupted her mistress, "the night is chilly."
"Has madame given her orders for the twentieth of the month?" went on the persistent maid.
"What orders?"
"Has madame forgotten that her marriage takes place a week from to-day?"
"What! a week from to-day?—so soon!"
"Madame fixed the date for May 20, and this is May 12—"
"If I said the twentieth, I suppose it must be on the twentieth—give me my fan."
The maid brought a collection of magnificent fans and placed them before her mistress to allow her to make a choice.
"How singular," murmured the countess, half to herself, as she picked out a veritable Watteau from the rich collection; "I am young and free, and abhor constraint, yet I have chosen a master."
"A master!" exclaimed Katinka. "Why, the duke is so good and kind, madame! You will make whatever you wish of him."