"I am in luck!" said Lord Linden in an unusually animated tone. "My dear M. de Bois, I am the happiest of men! I have encountered my unknown beauty at last! She passed me in a private carriage, which stopped here and was dismissed. I saw her enter this house not a quarter of an hour ago. She did not perceive me, and had disappeared before I could accost her; but I determined to keep watch until she made her exit, and then either to renew my acquaintance or to follow her home and learn where she lived. She shall not give me the slip again."
"Are you sure you have not made some mistake? I do not think there is any lady here, at this moment, except Mrs. Gilmer, whom I accompanied."
"I am perfectly certain I could not be mistaken. I shall make some excuse for remaining here; I will select a shawl or mantle for my sister, who is one of this celebrated Mademoiselle Melanie's customers, and who will not be displeased at such an unprecedented attention."
Before M. de Bois could reply, the marchioness returned with Victorine.
"And you say my dress for this evening will be done in an hour? That is delightful! I am impatient to test its effects. I am half inclined to wait until it is finished, and take it home with me."
"It shall be completed _within_ the hour; I am occupied upon it _myself_," answered Victorine, with a fawning manner, very different from that by which the banker's wife had been kept in subjection.
"What an original idea!" cried Madame de Fleury, pausing before the uncompleted dress which had attracted the admiration of Mrs. Gilmer. "What an exquisite conception! Those blades of golden wheat and those scarlet poppies make the most perfect trimming for these ravishing shades of green; just the colors that become me most. That dress is a triumph, Mademoiselle Victorine!"
"The design is Mademoiselle Melanie's, but the _cut_, the _execution_, they are _mine_," said the forewoman, complacently.
"And for whom is the dress intended? But I need hardly ask,--I am determined that it shall be _mine_."
"It was to be sent to New Orleans to Madame la Motte, wife of the distinguished senator. But, I beg to assure madame that she cannot judge of this attire; it is nothing now. In a few days, when it is completed, then madame will be able to see that we have surpassed ourselves in that dress."