“I will be there,” said Regina, with a distinct accession of dignity.
And so, punctual to the moment, Regina appeared in the salon of the schoolmistress. Their mode of communication was original, it was also a little difficult, but both being determined women, they overcame the difficulties of the situation with a supreme indifference to the effect the one might have upon the other. As a matter of fact, Julia had been a little wide of the mark when she had declared to her mother that Madame did not speak one word of English. Madame spoke a little more English than Regina spoke French, and by a series of contortions, gesticulations, and other efforts which I need not attempt to reproduce here, Madame de la Barre contrived to make known to Mrs. Whittaker her object in seeking for the interview. And her object in seeking the interview was that she should explain to her that she considered the taste in dress of the demoiselles Whittaker to be something too atrocious for words.
“C’est affreux! c’est affreux,” she exclaimed, when she found that Regina was a little dense of understanding. “Horreeble—horreeble!”
“I have never,” said Regina, speaking very slowly and distinctly, and with an indulgent air as if she were communicating with someone a little short of being an idiot, “I have never trained my children to care about those matters.”
“But they are young ladies! It is most important,” Madame exclaimed, with quite a tragic air.
“It will come,” said Regina, waving her substantial hand with a vast gesture, as if good taste in dressing was likely to drop from the clouds, “it will come. I never worry about things that are not essential.”
“But it is essential for a young lady—a demoiselle—it is—it is for her life.”
Poor Madame de la Barre! She tried very hard indeed to explain that the many purchases made by the young ladies were not such as should have been made by young girls not yet entered into the great world. She made no impression upon Regina.
“These are small matters,” she said, with a magnificent air; “not essentials in any way. They will make mistakes at first—I don’t doubt it, Madame—we have all done it in our day, but they will learn, oh, they will learn.”