ated a spray of the same flowers; and in
among the masses of her glittering, waving auburn hair rested a
slender diadem of the turquoise again--that whose nameless tint, half
blue, half green, makes it an inestimable treasure among the Navajoes,
as it was once among the Aztecs, who called it the chalchivitl;
each cluster of Maudita's turquoises set in a frost-work of finest
diamonds--a splendid toilette indeed, as fresh and radiant as the
morning dew upon the meadows. When they set out on the love-path, that
is. When they came home from it, and from all the fatigues and fervors
of the German, a metamorphosis. The gauzy dress was so fringed and
trodden on and torn that it seemed to hold together, like many an
ill-assorted marriage, by the cohesion of habit alone; the hair--Madge
Wildfire's was of more respectable appearance; the powder had fallen
on arms and shoulders; and to my critical eyes, if to no others, the
sunset hues remained on only one of Florimonde's cheeks; and those
enticing shadows round Maudita's eyes when she went out--for the best
of eyes are dulled by too much wear and tear--does antimony 'run,'
or had some pugilistic partner given her a 'black eye'? Not that the
damsels came home in such trim on every night of the season: this was
the accumulation of six parties in one night, the last of the Germans,
when the fun grew fast and furious, the figures and the favors more
fantastic; when daylight was breaking ere the champagne breakfast was
eaten; and when the drunken coachman, out all night, had kept them
shivering in the porch an endless while, and had jolted them about the
carriage afterward. But they had had a glorious time: their eyes were
dancing like marsh-lights, their laughter was ringing like a peal of
bells, the jests and bon-mots and flattery they had heard were running
off their lips like rain; they had made Goodness knows what conquests,
they had made Goodness knows how many engagements; and oh, they
were so tired! I ran into their room to see them next day: it was
afternoon, and they were still in bed. There was nothing remarkable in
that, they said: some girls were obliged to stay in bed two days out
of every week through sheer fatigue, and some got so excited they
couldn't sleep at all, except by means of morphia, and that made them
sick a couple of days, any way; but as for themselves, they had never
given out yet, and never meant to do so. While she was speaking,
Florimonde's voice falter