sky and sea. That was Grevet’s. And when you entered there was no one present at first. It was very still, like entering some secret hall[Pg 48] of silence. You almost felt an intruder unless you were of the favored ones who came often to have their wants supplied. [Pg 48] A period of awesome waiting, of hesitation lest you might have made a mistake after all, and then Madame, in a costume of stunning simplicity, would glance out from some inner sanctum, murmur a command, and forth would come a slim attendant in black satin frock and hair cut, seemingly, off the same piece of goods, and demand your need; and later would come forth the mannikins and models wearing creations of distinction that would put the lily’s garb to shame. It was in the mysterious side lines somewhere from which they issued forth unexpectedly upon the purchaser of garments, that a group of these attendants stood conversing, just behind Madame’s inner sanctum, in low tones because Madame might return at any moment, and Madame did not permit comments on the customers. “She was a beautiful girl,” said one whose high color under tired eyes, and boyish hair-cut on a head mature, were somehow oddly at variance. “She was different!” “Yes, different!” spoke another crisply with an accent, “quite different, and attractive, yes. But she had no style. She wore her hair like one who didn’t care for style. Becoming, yes, but not at all the thing. Quite out. She didn’t seem to belong to him at all. She was not like any of the girls he has brought here before.” “And yet she had distinction.” [Pg 49] [Pg 49] “Yes,” hesitating, “distinction of a kind. But more the distinction of another universe.” “Oh, come down to earth, Miss Lancey,” cried a round little model with face a shade too plump. “You’re always up in the clouds. She had no style and you know it. That coat she wore was one of those nineteen ninety-eight coats in Simon’s window. I see them every night when I go home. I knew it by those tricky little pockets. Quite cute they are with good lines, but cheap and common of course. She was nothing but a poor girl. Why try to make out she was something else. She has a good figure of course, and pretty features if one likes that angelic type, but
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