“One should bow to it,” she said.

“Idolatry!”

“There! look what nodding does.”

A blanche bacchante with a top-knot of leaves venturesomely approached.

“I’m Amethyst,” she murmured.

“Indeed?”

“Of Fashion. You are Miss Sinquier, I take it, whose costumes for Romeo—Renaissance, and ergo à la mode!—I so long to hear about.”

Miss Sinquier dimpled.

“The frocks,” she said, “some of them, will be simply killing.”

“I want your first.”