That I was nervous goes without saying, but there were so many chances of my fear being groundless that I did my best to dismiss it. The music-room was simple, spacious, white-and-gold, admirably adapted not only to the purpose it served but to that which had brought us there. When our carpets were spread they made a magnificent gold spot in the center of a sumptuous emptiness.
A few minutes later the nice little bit of fluff tripped in, justifying the description. She was one of those instances, of which we saw a good many among our customers, where a merciful providence had given a great deal of money to some one who would have been quite too insignificant without it. A worn fairness of complexion was supplemented by cosmetics, and an inadequate stock of very blond hair arranged in artistic disarray in order to make the most of it. To offset the laces and pearls of an elaborate negligée by a "democratic" manner, and so put poor working-men at their ease, she nodded to us in a friendly, offhand way, saying, briskly:
"Now then! Let’s see! Which is the modern one and which is the antique? I can’t tell; can you?" Looking at me archly, she changed her tone to the chaffing one which the French describe as _blagueur_. "But of course you’ll say you can, because that’s your business. You’ve got them marked with some sort of secret sign, like a conjurer with coins, so as to tell one from the other, without my knowing it."
Having said this, she began to march round the two great gold-covered oblongs with the movement of a prowling little animal. Keeping my eye on the main doorway, I pointed out that while the modern piece would please the ordinary eye only the antique would satisfy the elect. There was no question but that the Indian reproduction was good. Any one who took it would do more than get his money’s worth, since it would tone down with the years, while the hard wool of which it was woven would make it stand comparatively rough usage. But—didn’t madam see?—the antique, made on the old Chinese looms, was of the softer, richer sheen imparted by the softer, richer wool; and wasn’t the heavenly turquoise-blue of the ornaments and border of a beauty which the modern dyes had not begun to reproduce?