Hortense shrugged her shoulders, and hung up the gown.
“Has Madame any further commands for me?” she asked, coming up to her mistress.
“Yes; be sure to get the velvet at Lemaire's, and take back the silk kimono. I will send to New York for one.”
“That is all—besides the other errands. Now go.” She dismissed her with a wave of her shapely hand. “But first, as I bade you, send Polly Pepper to me.”
Hortense, with another elevation of her shoulders, said nothing, till she found herself the other side of the door. Then she shook her fist at it.
“It ees not Miss Polly who will be sent for; it ees Madame who will be sent out of dees house, j'ai peur—ha, ha, ha!”
She laughed softly to herself all the way downstairs, with an insolent little fling to her head, that boded ill for her mistress's interests.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Chatterton was angrily pacing up and down the room. “What arrant nonsense a man can be capable of when he is headstrong to begin with! To think of the elegant Horatio King, a model for all men, surrounding himself with this commonplace family. Faugh! It is easy enough to see what they are all after. But I shall prevent it. Meanwhile, the only way to do it is to break the spirit of this Polly Pepper. Once do that, and I have the task easy to my hand.”
She listened intently. “It can't be possible she would refuse to come. Ha! I thought so.”