CHAPTER XXIV
RUMOR
Have you ever noticed how a lie spreads and grows as it flies along? What a pity it is that the truth does not increase in the same proportion!
“Pray be seated, madame,” said Madame Clementine. “I am delighted to be honored by a visit from so distinguished a lady. Certainly I know your name well, everyone interested in the cause of womanhood knows the name of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker.”
Regina smiled and bowed. She was well accustomed to this kind of flattery, but it had never lost its charm for her, and now, after all those years, she accepted it at its face value.
“Mademoiselle Gabrielle,” called Madame Clementine.
“Mais oui, Madame,” answered a voice from another room, and immediately a little French girl came running in.
“Now, mademoiselle, here is a very distinguished lady—This is my right hand,” said Madame Clementine, turning to Regina. “Now, something very chic. Yes, look Mrs. Whittaker well over. You see, Gabrielle looks from this point and from that point, she takes in the whole. It is not with us to sell any hat that comes first, but to sell madame a hat that will always give madame satisfaction when she looks in the glass.”
“Mrs. Whittaker has not been very pleased with her milliner heretofore,” said Madame Florence.
“Ah madame, now you will never go anywhere else. My clients never leave me, because I believe in what you English call ‘the personal note.’ We have models—oh yes, that is absolutely necessary, because we have ladies who come in and say, ‘I want a hat, I want to wear it now,’ and they pay for it and go away. Well, we must supply their needs, but, when we have regular clients, we like to have a day or two of notice, to see the dress madame is wearing, the mood madame is in, and her state of health, then we make a toque that is madame’s toque, not a toque that you will meet three times between this and Oxford Street.”