attractive now if only
she had "abdicated," as nice middle-aged women say in France.

Her dress was the very latest dream of a neurotic Parisian modiste, and
would have been seductive on a slender girl. On her--well, at least she
would have her wish in it--she would not pass unnoticed!

She looked surprised at sight of me, and I saw she didn't realize that I
was the expected candidate.

"Lady Kilmarny couldn't come," I began to explain, "and--"

"Oh!" she cut me short. "So you are the young person she is recommending
as a maid."

I corrected Miss Paget when she called me a "young woman," but times
have changed since then, and in future I must humbly consent to be a
young person, or even a creature.

For a minute I forgot, and almost sat down. It would have been the end
of me if I had! Luckily I remembered What I was, and stood before my
mistress, trying to look like Patience on a monument with butter in her
mouth which mustn't be allowed to melt.

"What is your name?" began the catechism (and the word was "nime,"
according to Lady Turnour).

"N or M," nearly slipped out of my mouth, but I put Satan with all his
mischief behind me, and answered that I was Lys d'Angely.

"Oh, the surname doesn't matter. As you're a French girl, I shall call
you by your first name. It's always done."

(The first time in history, I'd swear, that a d'Angely was ever told his
name didn't matter!)

"You seem to speak English very well for a French woman?" (This almost
with suspicion.)

"My mother was American."

"How extraordinary!"

(This was apparently a _tache_. Evidently lady's-maids are expected
_not_ to have American mothers!)

"Let me hear your French accent."

I let her hear it.

"H'm! It seems well enough. Paris?"

"Paris, madame."

"Don't call me 'madame.' Any common person is madame. You should say
'your ladyship'."

I said it.

"And I want you should speak to me in the third person, like the French
servants are supposed to do in good houses."

"If mad--if your ladyship wishes."

(Thank heaven for a sense of humour! My one wild desire was to laugh.
Without that blessing, I should have yearned to slap her.)

"What references have you got from your last situation?"

"I have never been in service before--my lady."

"My word! That's bad. However, you're on the spot, and Lady Kilmarny
recommends you. The poor Princess was going to try you, it seems. I
should think she wouldn't have given much for a mai