as that wouldn't have been suitable with a
blouse and short skirt! Sir Samuel's stepson had been quite nasty and
superior about the jewels, when he got at her, afterward, and she
believed would have been rude if he'd dared, but luckily he didn't know
her well enough for that; and he'd better be careful how far he went, or
he'd find things very different from what they'd been with him, since
his mother married Sir Samuel. As if men knew when women ought to wear
their jewels, and when not! But he was green with jealousy of the things
his stepfather had given her; wanted everything himself.

She went on to describe the other members of the house party, and
mouthed their titles with delight, though she had only her own maid to
impress. Everyone had a title, it seemed, except Bertie, and the
American girl he wanted to marry, Miss Nelson, a sister of the young
marquise. Some of the titles were very high ones, too. There were
princes and princesses, and dukes and duchesses all over the place,
mostly French and Italian, though one of the duchesses was American,
like the marquise and her sister.

"Not the Duchesse de Melun!" I exclaimed, before I stopped to think.

"Yes, that's the name," said her ladyship, twisting round to look up at
me, as I wound her back hair in curling-pins. "What do you know about
her?"

How I wished that I knew nothing--and that I hadn't spoken!

The name had popped out, because the Duchesse de Melun is the only
American-born duchess of my acquaintance, and because I was hoping very
hard that the duchess of the Chateau de Roquemartine might _not_ be the
Duchesse de Melun. What bad luck that the Roquemartines had selected
that particular duchess for this particular house party, when they must
know plenty, and could just as well have chosen another specimen!

"I have heard her name," I admitted, primly. And so I had, too often. "A
friend of mine was--was with her, once."

"As her maid?"

"Not exactly."

"Another sort of servant, I suppose?"

As her ladyship stated this as a fact, rather than asked it as a
question, I ventured to refrain from answering. Fortunately she didn't
notice the omission, as her thoughts had jumped to another subject. But
mine were not so readily displaced. They remained fastened to the
Duchesse de Melun; and while Lady Turnour talked, I was wondering
whether I could successfully contrive to keep out of the duchess's way.
She is quite intimate with Cousin Catherine; and