scomposed manner
is to run the risk of spoiling the general effect. What _can_ have
happened to Mademoiselle Melanie? Hark! is not that some one? Did you
not hear a ring? I am not mistaken; some one _did_ come in. It is the
dress at last!"

The marchioness started up joyfully, with clasped hands, and an
expression of deep gratitude. A servant entered with a note; she
snatched it petulantly and tossed it into the card-basket unopened.

"How vexatious! Only a note! It is _too_ cruel! I shall never, never
pardon Mademoiselle Melanie if she disappoints me. But that's easy
enough to say, difficult enough to carry into execution. In reality I
could not exist without her; and Mademoiselle Melanie knows _that_ as
well as I do. She is so sought after that her exhibition-rooms are
crowded from morning until night. It is now a favor for her to receive
any new customers, and I believe she has some thirty or forty workwomen
in her employment. Of course, you have heard of Mademoiselle Melanie?"

"I have not had that pleasure; she is a mantua-maker, I presume,"
returned Maurice, repressing a smile.

"I suppose that is what, strictly speaking, we must call her; but she is
the very Queen of Taste, the Sovereign of Modistes. She has a genius
that is extraordinary,--it is magic,--it is inspiration! A touch of her
hand transforms every one who approaches her. What figures she has made
for some of these American women! What charms she has developed in them!
What an air and grace she has imparted to their whole appearance! She
makes the most vulgar look elegant, and the elegant, divine! Another
ring. Now Heaven grant it may be the dress at last!"

The marchioness was again disappointed: it was only another note, which
shared the fate of the former.

"Oh, I shall not survive this!" she ejaculated, dropping into an
arm-chair; "and that horrid little Mrs. Gilmer will triumph in my
absence. You know Mrs. Gilmer?"

"I have not that honor," returned Maurice, who, impatient as he was to
take his leave, found it impossible to depart while the marchioness
chose to detain him.

"She attempts to pass herself off for a belle, and even tries to take
precedence of _me_, ignoring all the customs of good society; but,
doubtless, the poor thing is actually ignorant of them, and should be
pardoned and pitied for her ill-breeding. She is the wife of Gilmer, the
rich banker. It is to Mademoiselle Melanie that she is indebted for all
her social success