The maid replied that she believed so, and, bringing a volume which had been laid aside with a mark in it, she opened on a fantastic plate of Madame de Longueville, as Diana, in a gorgeous hunting-dress.
Lady Tranmore looked at it in silence; she thought it unseemly, with its bare ankles and sandalled feet, and likely to be extremely expensive. For this Diana of the Fronde sparkled with jewels from top to toe, and Lady Tranmore felt certain that Kitty had already made William promise her the counterpart of the magnificent diamond crescent that shone in the coiffure of the goddess.
"It really seemed to be the only one that suited her ladyship," said the maid, in a deprecating voice.
"I dare say it will look very well," said Lady Tranmore. "And Fanchette is to make it?"
"If her ladyship is not too late," said the maid, smiling. "But she has taken such a long time to make up her mind—"
"And Fanchette, of course, is driven to death. All the world seems to have gone mad about this ball."
Lady Tranmore shrugged her shoulders in a slight disgust. She was not going. Since her elder son's death she had had no taste for spectacles of the kind. But she knew very well that fashionable London was talking and thinking of nothing else; she heard that the print-room of the British Museum was every day besieged by an eager crowd of fair ladies, claiming the services of the museum officials from dewy morn till eve; that historic costumes and famous jewels were to be lavished on the affair; that those who were not invited had not even the resource of contempt, so unquestioned and indubitable was the prospect of a really magnificent spectacle; and that the dress-makers of Paris and London, if they survived the effort, would reap a marvellous harvest.
"And Mr. Ashe—do you know if he is going, after all?" she asked of the maid as the latter was retreating.
"Mr. Ashe says he will, if he may wear just court-dress," said the maid, smiling. "Not unless. And her ladyship's afraid it won't be allowed."
"She'll make him go in costume," thought Lady Tranmore. "And he will do it, or anything, to avoid a scene."