The following evening my aunt's bedroom presented a spectacle of most
wild disorder.

Her maid and the dressmaker, with haggard eyes, for they had been up all
night, were both on their knees, rummaging amidst the bows of satin, and
feverishly sticking in pins.

"How late you are," said my aunt to me. "Do you know that it is eleven
o'clock? and we have," she continued, showing her white teeth, "a great
many things to do yet. The horses have been put to this last hour. I am
sure they will take cold in that icy courtyard." As she spoke she
stretched out her foot, shod with a red-heeled slipper, glittering with
gold embroidery. Her plump foot seemed to overflow the side of the shoe
a trifle, and through the openwork of her bright silk stocking the rosy
skin of her ankle showed at intervals.

"What do you think of me, Monsieur Artist?"

"But, Countess, my dear aunt, I mean, I--I am dazzled by this July sun,
the brightest of all the year, you know. You are adorable, adorable--and
your hair!"

"Is it not well arranged? Silvani did it; he has not his equal, that
man. The diamonds in the hair go splendidly, and then this lofty style
of head-dressing gives a majestic turn to the neck. I do not know
whether you are aware that I have always been a coquette as regards my
neck; it is my only bit of vanity. Have you brought your little color-
pots?"

"Yes, aunt, I have the whole apparatus, and if you will sit down--"