'Elle est ingenue, n'est pas?' An aside of Mrs. Tomkin-Jones to Mr. Wardroper. Then, 'It would be really too charming to have one of these birds in the garden.'
'I can get you a pair,' said Winefred. 'When I go home I will see to it. You can have only young choughs, but their beaks and legs are orange the first year; it is not till the second that they become scarlet. The wild, full-grown birds cannot be caught. They are becoming scarce. I think that the jackdaws are driving them.'
'How gratified Sir Barnaby will be!' observed the relict of Dr. Jones to young Wardroper. 'How it will amuse him to see in the flesh hopping about in the garden the choughs that are engraved on his plate, and worn on his livery. Ah! here we are.'
To a woman there is no happiness more sincere, more honest than that of spending money freely on her personal adornment. Next in degree is that of spending it on the decoration of another. Such as have not money at command to lavish, enjoy a very real and full happiness when the chance comes to them to dip freely into another person's purse regardless of the object for which they dip. Mrs. Tomkin-Jones had felt poignantly her inability to sweep into every shop in Bath, and run up bills commensurate with her social importance, and worthy of the memory of the late M.D. the Maker of Bath. But now her bosom swelled, and every pulse tingled with pride, because she was able to exhibit before the shop assistants that she was a woman who, if she did not spend much herself, was able to introduce to them such as could do so. The consciousness of importance gave stiffness to her back, amplitude to her bosom, elevation to her chin, and passed in electric rustles through the folds of her gown.
The mere looking through an assortment of materials, the matching of ribbons, the balancing of trimmings against the textile fabrics they are to enrich, afford a joy to the female heart such as no man can enter into.
When the preliminaries had been discussed and determined, then ensued the second act of the drama, the ascent to the measuring and fitting room, from which man is as absolutely excluded as of old from the mysteries of the Bona Dea. Mrs. Tomkin-Jones described a circle with a sweep of her skirts and said to Jesse, 'My dear, I am sure you will remain here with Mr. Wardroper, whilst I attend Miss Holwood above!' Then to the young man, 'I am truly sorry, but do you mind?'
'To be left with Miss Jesse is like being given the custody of the Crown jewels,' answered he.
When Winefred and Mrs. Tomkin-Jones were gone, Jesse turned with a laugh to Frank Wardroper, and said: 'It is positively bad. We are boring you intolerably.'
'Not at all. My soul lives in art.'
'You are laughing at us.'