reserved for the Queen, and the stools grouped around
it for ladies in waiting. Three especial stools were placed at the left
of the queen for the three "collaresses"--those whose husbands held the
highest order in Italy, the Grand Collar of the Annunciation.

It was the most brilliant gathering that Nina had ever seen, chiefly
made so by the gold-embroidered uniforms and court orders of the men.
The dresses and jewels of the women differed very little from those seen
at social functions elsewhere. With a rare exception, such as the
Duchessa Astarte and the Princess Vessano, whose toilettes were the most
_chic_ imaginable, the great ladies of Italy followed fashions very
little. Not that Nina found them dowdy--far from it: they had a
distinction of their own, which, like that of their ancient palaces,
seemed to remain superior to modern decrees of fashion. Nearly all of
them had lovely figures, which they did not strive to force into newly
prescribed outlines.

A remark that a foreigner in New York had made to Nina came back to her,
and she now realized its truth. It was that the one great difference
between the women of Europe and those of America was that in Europe one
noticed the women, while in America too often one noticed merely the
clothes. The Roman ladies wore plain princesse dresses, the majority of
velvet or brocade, and with little or no trimming save enormous jewels
often clumsily set, but barbarically magnificent.

Here and there, to Nina's intense interest, she found, strangely mingled
with the others, people of the provinces, who, because of distinguished
names, had the right to appear at court, yet who looked as though they
were wearing evening dress for the first time in their lives. Near by,
for instance, was a lady whose rotund person was buttoned into a
tight-fitting red velvet basque of ancient cut, above a skirt of pink
satin. A court train, evidently constructed out of curtain material, was
suspended from her shoulders. Broad gold bracelets clasped her plump
wrists at the point where her gloves terminated, and a high comb of
Etruscan gold ornamented the hard knob into which her hair was screwed.

Princess Vessano represented the other extreme--that of fashion. She was
in an Empire "creation" of green liberty satin with an over-tunic of
silver-embroidered gauze. Her hair was arranged in a fillet of diamonds,
which joined a small banded coronet, also of diamonds, set with three
enormous emerald