rooms, giving orders for dresses,
bonnets, etc., examining new styles of apparel, discussing the most
becoming modes, or idly chattering with acquaintances who visited
Mademoiselle Melanie upon the same important mission as themselves.

Mademoiselle Victorine generally led the conversation at the
working-table, or, rather, she usually monopolized it. It was a source
of great exultation to her if she happened to have a piece of news to
communicate; and this now chanced to be the case.

"Something very important is to take place in this house, probably this
very day!" she began, with a consequential air. "If Mademoiselle
Melanie has a fault, it is that she makes no confidants; and I think I
am fully entitled to her confidence. I should like to know what she
could have done without _me_?"

"What, indeed?" exclaimed several voices, for every one was anxious to
propitiate the forewoman by bestowing upon her the flattery which was
essential to keep her in an equable state of mind.

"When we think of the marvels," continued Mademoiselle Victorine, "that
issue from these walls; the splendid figures that go forth into the
world out of our creative hands,--figures, which, could they be seen
when they rise in the morning, would not be recognizable,--we have cause
for self-congratulation. And Mademoiselle Melanie gets all the credit
for these metamorphoses; though, we all know, she does _nothing_
herself; that is, she merely forms a plan, makes a sketch, selects
certain colors, and that is _all_! The execution, the real work, is
mine--_mine!_ I appeal to you, young ladies, to say if it is not
_mine_?"

"Yes, certainly," said Abby, one of the younger girls; "but without
Mademoiselle Melanie's sketch, without her ideas, her taste, what
would"--

"There--there; you talk too fast, Mademoiselle Abby; you are always
chattering. I say that without _me_ Mademoiselle Melanie would never
have attained her present elevated position; without _me_ this
establishment would never have been what it now is,--a very California
of dressmaking. And, in a little more than four years, what a fortune
Mademoiselle Melanie has accumulated! That brings me back to the point
from which I started. Does any one know what is to happen shortly?" she
inquired, with an air of elation at being the only repository of a
valuable secret.

"No--no--what is it?" asked numerous voices.

"Well, Mademoiselle Ruth, do you say nothing?" inquired the triumphant
fore