"E troppo, cosi." she said to her attendant at last. "Is that too
much so?"
Gigia looked critically before she answered, "To receive, yes,--a
little, perhaps. But to be caught unawares, no; and then with a
handkerchief, you know--"
"Oh, yes! One knows the exercise," said Bianca, with a laugh; "blush
and call attention to it by covering it with one's handkerchief,
which falls down as often as one chooses to repeat the manoeuvre. A
chi lo dite?"
"Style?" said Gigia.
"Sentimental,--eyes soft and dreamy; therefore the very faintest
blush of rouge. Yes; not a shade more."
"You won't put your bottines on?"
"No; there'll be time afterwards. Give me a pair of bronze kid
slippers. After all, there is nothing that shows a foot so well: and
look here, Gigia, draw this stocking a little better; I'd almost as
soon have a wrinkle in my face as in the silk on my instep. That's
better! The narrow black velvet with the jet cross for my neck,
nothing else. Now, you understand? Anybody who comes after one
o'clock may be admitted; before that you will let in no soul save
the Marchese Lamberto, in case he should come. I don't at all know
that he will. And, Gigia," continued her mistress, as she passed
into the sitting-room, "draw this sofa over to the other side of the
fireplace, so as to face the window; ten years hence, when you have
to place a sofa for me, you may put it just contrariwise--so, with
the head at the side of the fireplace, and push the table a little
further back so as to leave room for the easy-chair there to stand
near the foot of the sofa facing the fire.
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