of the best materials justify the greater expense.

The capacity of her _armoires_ and the size of the accumulated
collections they contain were tested some years ago by the special
production of Strauss's "Salome" at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris, when
Muelle was called upon, at ridiculously short notice, to furnish all
costumes for a cast of 150 people. There was a royal ransacking of
cupboards and jewel cabinets, but everything was ready on time for the
dress rehearsal.

[Illustration: DALILA AS I NOW DRESS IT]

A greater feather in her cap was the order to costume the new
productions of the Russian Ballet, from designs by no less a
personage than the great Leon Bakst himself. Then ensued a dyeing of
silks and a printing of chiffons, a stringing of beads and knotting of
fringes which set the whole establishment humming like a beehive.

For all their thousand problems, the costumes were finished and
delivered at the appointed time.

Since that triumph there has been hardly an important costume event in
all Paris in which Muelle has not had a share, if not entire charge. She
costumed Astruc's first season in the Theatre des Champs Elysees. She
has been responsible for the costuming of many productions of the
Russian Ballet, and for great spectacles like Debussy's "St. Sebastien"
and "La Pisanelle" of D'Annunzio. Society knows her as well as the
stage, for she has been the presiding genius at many an exquisite fete,
Greek, Roman, or Persian, held in lovely gardens behind the prosaic
exteriors of exclusive Parisian homes.

But all this has not turned her head, nor changed her toward her old
friends. She still loves a good gossip. Many a note have we had from
her--"I am delighted that Mademoiselle is returning to Paris, and hope
that she will come to see me. I have quantities of stories to tell her,
and we shall die of laughing."

But though she enjoys a choice tidbit, she will tolerate no malicious
tale-bearing. She refused an order, tactfully and firmly, from one
singer because the lady tried to tell tales out of school against one of
Muelle's chosen favourites. Her revenge in this case was typical. She
knows that advancing age is the enemy _par excellence_ of popularity for
stage people, so she makes a point of always referring to the delinquent
as "La Mere So-and-So!"

The list of her kindnesses to artists is unending. One case that I know
of personally is typical. A girl with an unusually beautiful voice h