“I can make Mademoiselle something very pretty,” began the woman, but the Countess cut her short: “We want to-day a simple, yet smart, coat and skirt, an afternoon Casino and restaurant gown, and a simple, girlish evening dress. We want to take them away now, this morning.”
Mme. Jeanne looked a little uncomfortable, and also a little surprised.
“Everything is very dear——” she began, hesitatingly, “though of course I should always make a very special price for Madame la Comtesse.”
“I count on that, my good Jeanne, for Mademoiselle will pay ready money.”
The woman’s face cleared as if by magic. “If I have not got exactly what Mademoiselle requires, I can borrow something from one or two of my rivals,” she said smiling.
The two ladies were shown into an inner room panelled with looking-glass. There they waited for a very few minutes—though the Countess was fidgety, and kept saying that she thought Jeanne might hurry herself a little more—before two neatly-dressed girls with beautifully-done hair, brought in, the one a selection of delightful-looking pale grey and cream coats and skirts, and the other an armful of filmy white blouses.
Lily tried on all the coats and skirts, but the second one she had put on obviously suited her the best. It was of a delicate, pale brownish-grey tint, and though it was very simply made, she was at once agreeably aware, as she gazed this way and that, seeing reflections of herself wherever she turned, that she had never looked so well-dressed in her life as she looked in this little coat and skirt.
As for the blouses to be worn with the frock, they were all so pretty that she could not make up her mind between them, and she ended by choosing five.
Before she took off the coat and skirt, Mme. Jeanne suddenly exclaimed: “Surely Mademoiselle will want a hat to match the costume?” And before Lily could answer a delightful little grey toque, trimmed with Mercury wings, was produced.
The selection of a muslin gown and of a silk coatee to wear with it was a very quick affair. In spite of the Countess’s objection to mauve, Mme. Jeanne persuaded her that Mademoiselle would look well in deep violet. The collar and cuffs of the coatee were of dark fur, and the same note of colour was repeated in a tiny round purple hat trimmed with some pompoms of fur which Lily felt she must certainly buy too!