Love Me Little, Love Me Long | Page 4

undertake any work for a week. Provoking! could not the woman
die just as well after the ball?"
"Oh, aunt!"
"And my maid has no more taste than an owl. What on earth am I to
do?"
"Wear another dress."
"What other can I?"
"Nothing can be prettier than your white mousseline de soie with the
tartan trimming."
"No, I have worn that at four balls already; I won't be known by my
colors, like a bird. I have made up my mind to wear the jaune, and I
will, in spite of them all; that is, if I can find anybody who cares
enough for me to try it on, and tell me what it wants." Lucy offered at
once to go with her to her room and try it on.
"No--no--it is so cold there; we will do it here by the fire. You will find
it in the large wardrobe, dear. Mind how you carry it. Lucy! lots of
pins."
Mrs. Bazalgette then rang the bell, and told the servant to say she was
out if anyone called, no matter who.
Meantime Lucy, impressed with the gravity of her office, took the dress
carefully down from the pegs; and as it would have been death to
crease it, and destruction to let its hem sweep against any of the inferior
forms of matter, she came down the stairs and into the room holding
this female weapon of destruction as high above her head as Judith
waves the sword of Holofernes in Etty's immortal picture.
The other had just found time to loosen her dress and lock one of the

doors. She now locked the other, and the rites began. Well!!??
"It fits you like a glove."
"Really? tell the truth now; it is a sin to tell a story--about a new gown.
What a nuisance one can't see behind one!"
"I could fetch another glass, but you may trust my word, aunt. This
point behind is very becoming; it gives distinction to the waist."
"Yes, Baldwin cuts these bodies better than Olivier; but the worst of
her is, when it comes to the trimming you have to think for yourself.
The woman has no mind; she is a pair of hands, and there is an end of
her."
"I must confess it is a little plain, for one thing," said Lucy.
"Why, you little goose, you don't think I am going to wear it like this.
No. I thought of having down a wreath and bouquet from Foster's of
violets and heart's-ease--the bosom and sleeves covered with blond,
you know, and caught up here and there with a small bunch of the
flowers. Then, in the center heart's-ease of the bosom, I meant to have
had two of my largest diamonds set--hush!"
The door-handle worked viciously; then came rap! rap! rap! rap!
"Tic--tic--tic; this is always the way. Who is there? Go away; you can't
come here."
"But I want to speak to you. What the deuce are you doing?" said
through the keyhole the wretch that owned the room in a mere legal
sense.
"We are trying a dress. Come again in an hour."
"Confound your dresses! Who is we?"
"Lucy has got a new dress."
"Aunt!" whispered Lucy, in a tone of piteous expostulation.
"Oh, if it is Lucy. Well, good-by, ladies. I am obliged to go to London
at a moment's notice for a couple of days. You will have done by when
I come back, perhaps," and off went Bazalgette whistling, but not best
pleased. He had told his wife more than once that the drawing-rooms
and dining-rooms of a house are the public rooms, and the bedrooms
the private ones.
Lucy colored with mortification. It was death to her to annoy anyone;
so her aunt had thrust her into a cruel position.
"Poor Mr. Bazalgette!" sighed she.
"Fiddle de dee. Let him go, and come back in a better temper--set

transparent; so then, backed by the violet, you know, they will imitate
dewdrops to the life."
"Charming! Why not let Olivier do it for you, as poor Baldwin
cannot?"
"Because Olivier works for the Claytons, and we should have that
Emily Clayton out as my double; and as we visit the same houses--"
"And as she is extremely pretty--aunt, what a generalissima you are!"
"Pretty! Snub-nosed little toad. No, she is not pretty. But she is
eighteen; so I can't afford to dress her. No. I see I shall have to
moderate my views for this gown, and buy another dress for the flowers
and diamonds. There, take it off, and let us think it calmly over. I never
act in a hurry but I am sorry for it afterward--I mean in things of real
importance." The gown was taken off in silence, broken