"Leonard!" exclaimed Madame de Noailles. "And has your majesty then forgotten that the queen is not permitted to be waited upon by any but womanly hands?"
"The queen not permitted!" echoed Marie Antoinette, proudly. "We shall see whether the Queen of France asks permission of her subjects to employ a male or female hair dresser!"
The door opened, and the discussion was stopped by the entrance of
Madame de Campan with Leonard.
"Now, ladies," continued the queen, "be so good as to await me in the reception-room." As she saw that the prim lips of De Noailles were about to be opened, she added: "The mistress of ceremonies and the ladies of the bedchamber will remain."
Leonard's skilful hands were soon at work, loosening the queen's hair; and it glistened, as it fell, like glimmering gold. He surveyed it with such looks of enthusiasm as a statuary might bestow upon the spotless block of marble, whence he will fashion, ere long, the statue of a goddess.
Marie Antoinette, from the mirror, saw his complacent face, and smiled.
"What style do you intend to adopt for me?" asked she.
"The coiffure a la Marie Antoinette," said Leonard.
"I have never seen it."
Here Leonard sank the subject, and became the artiste. His head went proudly back with a look of conscious power.
"Your majesty must not think me so barren of invention that I should deck the head of my queen with a coiffure that has been seen before by mortal eyes."