Marietta was now in the dressing-room, whither she requested the presence of her mistress immediately.
"What is it?" asked the bewildered Lucretia.
"The dressmaker is there, signora, to see if your dresses are to your taste," replied Marietta.
"Let me see them," cried she, impatiently.
Marietta drew from a box a dress of pink satin, which, from its make, was evidently intended for an under-skirt. "There is another, just like it, of blue satin," exclaimed the enraptured lady's maid, "and here is a box containing two peignoirs of guipure, with morning caps to match. How beautiful your ladyship will look in these negliges!"
"We will see at once whether I do," answered Lucretia, clapping her hands with joy. "Here Marietta—quick! Help me off with this hateful gown, and hand me the pink-satin petticoat."
In a few moments the mistress and maid were equally happy, while the former was being decked in her magnificent neglige. The satin petticoat was loose; and over it was thrown the guipure peignoir which reached to the throat, and was continued at the waist by a pink sash. The full sleeves were open, leaving half-covered, half- exposed, Lucretia's arms, firm and white as Carrara marble.
"Now this love of a lace cap," cried Marietta, placing it with great coquetry around the black braids of Lucretia's glossy hair; while the latter, quite reconciled to the wonders that were being enacted around her, was profoundly engaged in admiring herself in a looking- glass.
"And now," said Marietta, "you are ready, and certainly you are as lovely as a fairy."
"Fairy, say you? Yes; that seems to be the appropriate name for one who is the recipient of such extraordinary riches as these. But now, Marietta, whence do they come? Are they from my brother?"