"Then you are about to invent a coiffure?"
"If it please your majesty—if your majesty will condescend to leave its fashion to the inspiration of my genius."
"Follow your inspiration by all means," said the queen, highly amused, and Leonard began his work. A long, solemn pause ensued, and all eyes were strained to see the result. He combed the queen's hair over a trellis of fine wire, then he introduced two down cushions, which he had brought in his band-box, and after he had built him a tower of a foot high, he took a long breath and surveyed the structure. Then he glanced at the toilet-table where lay a mass of flowers, feathers, and laces, which Bertin had left.
"May I be allowed to select from these?" asked he.
The queen nodded, and Leonard chose a bunch of white ostrich-feathers, which he prepared to place in her head.
"Feathers!" cried Marie Antoinette. "You surely are not going to put feathers in my hair!"
"Pardon me, your majesty," said Leonard, with an air of supreme wisdom, "if I beg you to allow me to complete my coiffure, before you decide upon its merits." And he went to work to fasten the feathers in his tower.
"This is really becoming," said the queen, not reflecting that her beautiful face with its lofty brow and exquisite contour could bear any abomination with which Leonard chose to invest it.
"I adopt the feathers," said she, "and allow you to call the coiffure after me. Poor ostriches, they will not thank me! From this day you are in my service, Monsieur Leonard, and my steward will assign you your apartments."
Leonard bowed with the dignity of an artist who feels that in the favor of his sovereign he receives his merited reward.