random, the absent-minded
girl came to a decision.

"We have every confidence in your house being able to supply us with a
cotillion complete in every detail. You know better than I what is
necessary. I will leave it to you, then, to see that everything is
done as well as possible."

The saleswoman was full of delighted protestations. Though satisfied
with a decision that simplified her task, she was surprised that a
young girl as free to act and order as Mademoiselle de Naarboveck
seemed to be, did not take interest in the details of a fete which, as
rumour had it, was given in her honour.

"Ah!" said the young woman, as she collected the patterns scattered
over a table in the hall, "if all our customers were like you,
Mademoiselle, and allowed us to carry out our own ideas, we should do
marvellous things!"

Wilhelmine smiled, but--would this saleswoman never have done!

"Of course, Mademoiselle, we make similar ribbons for you and your
partner; but would you kindly tell me if the gentleman is tall or
short? It is better to make the ribbons of a length proportionate to
the height."

This question troubled Wilhelmine.... The leader of the cotillion
should have been Henri de Loubersac. Was not their betrothal to have
been announced at the ball?... But the painful interview at
Saint-Sulpice seemed to have put an end to all relations between them!

Who, then, would lead with her?

Little she cared!

"Really, Madame," replied Wilhelmine to the woman, who was astonished
at her indifference: "I do not know how tall or short my partner is,
for the very good reason that I do not know who he is!... Provide,
then, a set of ribbons which may suit anybody!"

When the representative of "The Ladies' Paradise" had taken her
departure, Wilhelmine went up to the library. Except for the stiff and
solemn household staff, Wilhelmine was alone in the house. Her father
was still absent: Mademoiselle Berthe had vanished.

The house was turned upside down from top to bottom. Decorators and
electricians were in possession. Hammering had been going on all the
afternoon. Furniture had been displaced, pushed hither and thither.
The hall had been denuded of all but the table; even the privacy of
the library had been invaded--and all in preparation for the ball of
the day after to-morrow, to which the baron de Naarboveck had invited
the highest personages of the aristocratic and official worlds.

What a lively interest Wilhelmine ha