possession of the
little house she had realised that, as she would have no callers, a
drawing-room would be absurd, so had suppressed the folding doors and
made the two rooms into one large one. In the front, between the two
windows, stood her dressing-table, now covered with small bottles, some
in cut glass and full of scent, others more workmanlike, marked
vaseline, glycerine, skin food, bay rum. Scattered about them on the
lace toilet cover, were boxes of powder, white, sepia, bluish, puffs,
little sticks of cosmetics, some silver-backed brushes, some squat and
short-bristled, others with long handles, with long soft bristles, one
studded with short wires, another with whalebone, some clothes brushes
too, buttonhooks, silver trays, a handglass with a massive silver
handle. Right and left, two little electric lamps and above the swinging
mirror, a shaded bulb shedding a candid glow.

One wall was blotted out by two inlaid mahogany wardrobes; through the
open doors of one could be seen a pile of frilled linen, lace
petticoats, chemises threaded with coloured ribbons. On the large
arm-chair, covered with blue and white chintz, was a crumpled heap of
white linen, a pair of _cafe au lait_ silk stockings. A light mahogany
chair or two stood about the room. Each had a blue and white cushion. A
large wash-stand stood near the mantlepiece, laden with blue and white
ware. The walls were covered with blue silky paper, dotted here and
there with some colour prints. These were mostly English; their nude
beauties sprawled and languished slyly among bushes, listening to the
pipes of Pan.

Victoria went into the back of the room, and, unhooking her cream silk
dressing jacket, threw it on the bed. This was a vast low edifice of
glittering brown wood, covered now by a blue and white silk bedspread
with edges smothered in lace; from the head of the bed peeped out the
tips of two lace pillows. By the side of the bed, on the little night
table, stood two or three books, a reading lamp and a small silver
basket full of sweets. An ivory bell-pull hung by the side of a swinging
switch just between the pillows.

Victoria walked past the bed and looked at herself in the high
looking-glass set into the wall which rose from the floor to well above
her head. The mirror threw back a pleasing reflection. It showed her a
woman of twenty-six, neither short nor tall, dressed in a white
petticoat and mauve silk corsets. The corsets fitted well int