, by Boucher.

The maid who followed her into the room began to remove the books.

"Her ladyship has been choosing her costume, my lady," she explained, as
she closed some of the volumes.

"Is it settled?" said Lady Tranmore.

The maid replied that she believed so, and, bringing a volume which had
been laid aside with a mark in it, she opened on a fantastic plate of
Madame de Longueville, as Diana, in a gorgeous hunting-dress.

Lady Tranmore looked at it in silence; she thought it unseemly, with its
bare ankles and sandalled feet, and likely to be extremely expensive.
For this Diana of the Fronde sparkled with jewels from top to toe, and
Lady Tranmore felt certain that Kitty had already made William promise
her the counterpart of the magnificent diamond crescent that shone in
the coiffure of the goddess.

"It really seemed to be the only one that suited her ladyship," said the
maid, in a deprecating voice.

"I dare say it will look very well," said Lady Tranmore. "And Fanchette
is to make it?"

"If her ladyship is not too late," said the maid, smiling. "But she has
taken such a long time to make up her mind--"

"And Fanchette, of course, is driven to death. All the world seems to
have gone mad about this ball."

Lady Tranmore shrugged her shoulders in a slight disgust. She was not
going. Since her elder son's death she had had no taste for spectacles
of the kind. But she knew very well that fashionable London was talking
and thinking of nothing else; she heard that the print-room of the
British Museum was every day besieged by an eager crowd of fair ladies,
claiming the services of the museum officials from dewy morn till eve;
that historic costumes and famous jewels were to be lavished on the
affair; that those who were not invited had not even the resource of
contempt, so unquestioned and indubitable was the prospect of a really
magnificent spectacle; and that the dress-makers of Paris and London, if
they survived the effort, would reap a marvellous harvest.

"And Mr. Ashe--do you know if he is going, after all?" she asked of the
maid as the latter was retreating.

"Mr. Ashe says he will, if he may wear just court-dress," said the maid,
smiling. "Not unless. And her ladyship's afraid it won't be allowed."

"She'll make him go in costume," thought Lady Tranmore. "And he will do
it, or anything, to avoid a scene."

The maid retired, and Lady Tranmore was left alone. As she sat waiting,
a thought occurre