CHAPTER VII

AN EMBASSY BALL

"Don't say that it is not pretty," added my aunt, brushing the firedog
with the tip of her tiny boot. "It lends an especial charm to the look,
I must acknowledge. A cloud of powder is most becoming, a touch of rouge
has a charming effect, and even that blue shadow that they spread, I
don't know how, under the eye. What coquettes some women are! Did you
notice Anna's eyes at Madame de Sieurac's last Thursday? Is it
allowable? Frankly, can you understand how any one can dare?"

"Well, aunt, I did not object to those eyes, and between ourselves they
had a softness."

"I do not deny that, they had a softness."

"And at the same time such a strange brilliancy beneath that half shadow,
an expression of such delicious languor."

"Yes, certainly, but, after all, it is making an exhibition of one's
self. But for that--it is very pretty sometimes--I have seen in the Bois
charming creatures under their red, their black, and their blue, for they
put on blue too, God forgive me!"

"Yes, aunt, Polish blue; it is put on with a stump; it is for the veins."

With interest: "They imitate veins! It is shocking, upon my word. But
you seem to know all about it?"