French books were
scattered here and there; and only one picture was admitted. That was a
Watteau sketch of a group from "L'Embarquement pour Cythere." Kitty
adored it; Lady Tranmore thought it absurd and disagreeable.
As she entered the room now, on this May afternoon, she looked round it
with her usual distaste. On several of the chairs large illustrated
books were lying. They contained pictures of seventeenth and eighteenth
century costume--one of them displayed a colored engraving of a
brilliant Madame de Pompadour, 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.
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