ow all that I _do_ know? It is odd to notice with what
perfect lack of reserve the ladies who visit us talk. They chatter away
just as if they thought we were human working-machines, without ears, or
brains, or memories. This singular hallucination makes it not difficult
to become acquainted with certain secrets of fashionable life which one
_clique_ would not make known to another _clique_ for the world."

"But this tittle-tattle"--Esther began.

"Chut, chut," cried the forewoman. "How you chatter, Mademoiselle
Esther; one cannot hear one's self speak for you! Somebody has just
entered the exhibition _salon_; who is it? Mrs. Gilmer, as I'm alive! M.
de Bois is with her; she has come to try on her dress, I suppose. She
may spare herself the pains, for she will not wear it at Madame de
Fleury's ball."

Ruth, whose duty it was to receive visitors, and to summon Victorine, if
they had orders to give, rose and entered the adjoining apartment.

Mrs. Gilmer was one of those light-headed and light-hearted women, who
float upon the topmost and frothiest wave of society, herself a
glittering bubble. To win admiration was the chief object of her life.
The breath of flattery wafted her upward toward her heaven,--that
rapturous state which was heaven to her. To be the _belle_ of every
reunion where she appeared was a triumph she could not forego; and there
were no arts to which she would not stoop to obtain this victory. Madame
de Fleury was a woman of the same stamp, but with all the polish, grace,
and refined coquetry which the social atmosphere of Paris imparts; and
though she had far less personal beauty than Mrs. Gilmer,--less mind,
less wit,--her capacity for using all the charms she possessed gave her
vast advantage over the fair-featured young American.

When Ruth entered the _salon_, Mrs. Gilmer was too much interested in
her conversation with M. de Bois to notice her, and continued talking
with as much freedom as though she was not present.

"I have set my heart upon it!" said she, "and I tell you I _must_
receive an invitation to this ball. Madame de Fleury positively _shall
not_ exclude me. I have already set in motion a number of influential
pulleys, and I am not apt to fail when I make an earnest attempt."

"I am quite aware of that," answered M. de Bois, gallantly.

"Oh, what a love of a dress! What an exquisite design!" exclaimed Mrs.
Gilmer, stopping delighted before a robe which had been commenced, but
was