iffons_" in
the dictionary, and you will see it simply defined as "_rags_;" yet
"_chiffons_" represent the very opposite of rags feminine, and conjure
up a multitudinous army of feminine fashions, fripperies, fancies,
follies, indispensable aids and adjuncts of the feminine toilet.

We have headed this chapter "_chiffons_," and given an imperfect
definition of the term, as a sign-post of warning to masculine
readers,--a hint that this is a chapter to be lightly skimmed, or
altogether skipped, for it unavoidably treats of "_chiffons_," which the
necessities of the narrative will not allow us to suppress.

The Marquis de Fleury had been appointed ambassador from the court of
Napoleon the Third to the United States of America.

Madame de Fleury's state of mind, in spite of the consolation afforded
by a number of strikingly original costumes, which she innocently
flattered herself would prove very effective during a sea-voyage, was
deplorable. Terror inspired by the perils of the deep was only surpassed
by intense grief excited by her compulsory banishment to a land where,
she imagined, the invading feet of modiste and mantua-maker had not
trodden out all resemblance to the original Eden; a land where the women
probably attired themselves with a leaning to antediluvian simplicity,
or in accordance with strong-minded proclivities, and the men were,
doubtless, too much engrossed by politics and business to be capable of
appreciating the most elaborate toilet that could be fashioned to
captivate their eyes; a land, in short, where taste was yet unborn, and
where it was ignorantly believed that the chief object of apparel was to
perform, on a more extensive scale, the use of primitive fig-leaves and
furs.

To prevent her from falling into the clutches of American barbarians,
Madame de Fleury secured two French maids as a _bodyguard_. Into the
hands of one, skilled in the intricate mysteries of hair-dressing, her
head was unreservedly consigned; the other, versed in more varied arts,
had entire charge of the rest of her person. But these _aides-de-camp_
of the toilet were deemed insufficient for the guardianship of her
charms. The moment her sentence of exile was pronounced, she had
summoned the incomparable Vignon to her presence, and piteously painted
the difficulties which must beset her path when she was remorselessly
torn from within reach of the creative fingers of the artist
_couturiere_. Vignon had unanticipated comf