Fairy Fingers Part 49

Madeleine involuntarily rubbed her eyes, as though she were trying to wake from a confused dream. She could not believe that she had really entangled herself in this web of plotting, and at the bidding of Count Tristan! She feared that she had acted too impulsively,--that she had made unwarrantable use of her power. Then she remembered the look of deep distress upon Count Tristan's face as he made his half confidences; she recalled his a.s.surances that without her interposition Maurice would not only be ruined, but that disgrace must attach itself to his father's name. She had promised her aid, had half gained the victory, and must not retreat now when the only portion of her work which remained to be accomplished consisted in compelling a fas.h.i.+onable puppet to send an invitation to a rival whom she detested. There was nothing objectionable in the act itself; yet Madeleine, during these calm reflections, shrank from the part she was playing, and revolted against being mingled up with stratagems, however innocent.

This revery was broken by the announcement that Madame de Fleury had arrived, and was at that moment trying on her dress.

When Madeleine entered the apartment, Madame de Fleury was standing before a mirror, evidently admiring her new costume, and in great good-humor. She turned to Madeleine gayly, and said,--

"Mademoiselle Melanie, this dress is perfection! This corsage sets off my figure beautifully! And what exquisite apologies for sleeves you have invented! My arm is one of my best points, and the tinier the sleeve the better. Then the looping of this lace dress through these miniature chaplets of wild roses is very original; the whole effect is wonderfully airy and poetic. This is one of your great triumphs; you have really surpa.s.sed yourself."

As she spoke, she turned around and around, complacently contemplating her reflected image from various points of view.

"I am particularly gratified at having pleased you, madam," said Madeleine, with more gravity than was usual to her when she accosted her light-brained customers.

Madame de Fleury, without noticing her serious mien, commenced disrobing. Victorine folded up the dress and placed it in a _carton_.

"I mean to take the dress with me," said the marchioness. "Mademoiselle Victorine, have the goodness to desire my servant to place that _carton_ in the carriage."

As Victorine prepared to obey, Madeleine motioned her to desist, and said, "Not yet; leave the dress for a few moments. You may retire."

The forewoman reluctantly left the room, looking puzzled, curious, and indignant.

"What? Is some alteration needful?" asked Madame de Fleury. "Have you some fresh inspiration? Has a new idea that will improve the dress suddenly struck you?"

Without replying to these questions, Madeleine looked earnestly at the marchioness, who was now resuming her bonnet, and asked,--

"You are, then, satisfied with my work, madame?"

"Satisfied? that is a cold word. I am transported!"

"And if," continued Madeleine, "for that dress I should require a price"--

"Oh, whatever you please," replied the marchioness, lightly. "Take me prisoner, gag me, plunder me, what you will, I shall not complain: the dress is worth it; and we have never had any discussion in regard to prices."

"But the price in question is not one that can be paid with money; the price I place upon this dress is the granting of a favor,--a favor most precious to me."

"A favor? you have only to speak. Do you want an office for a friend? A recommendation for some ambitious compatriot to the emperor? A pardon for some exiled transgressor? Anything possible to the wife of the French amba.s.sador is at your service; you have but to speak."

"My pet.i.tion is somewhat easier to grant; for I only ask a few words from you in writing."

As she said this, Madeleine opened a desk, and placed upon it a sheet of note-paper, a gold pen, and an inkstand. Then she paused, and said, hesitatingly,--

"Yet, though I ask but these few written words, in full compensation for that dress, the materials of which as well as the work being mine, I fear to make my pet.i.tion known, for I feel that it will cost you much to comply with my wishes."

"Nonsense! speak plainly," said Madame de Fleury, smoothing her ribbons with caressing touches.

"I would solicit an invitation to your ball for one of your acquaintances who, as yet, has received none, and who chances to be one of my customers."

"Is that all? We are enacting much ado about nothing," said the marchioness, seating herself smilingly at the desk. "You shall have the invitation, modest and mysterious pet.i.tioner. What name shall I write?"

"Mrs."--Madeleine faltered.

"Go on," cried the marchioness, who had commenced her note with the usual formula.

"Mrs. Gilmer!" responded Madeleine.

Madame de Fleury threw down the pen and started up.

"Mrs. Gilmer! Invite Mrs. Gilmer to a ball from which I have purposely excluded her? Invite her when I have the satisfaction of knowing that she is dying of mortification because she cannot get an invitation?--when I have steeled myself against the solicitations of Madame Orlowski? Never! I would rather bear the weight of all the years which she impertinently added to my age."

Madeleine, who was fully prepared for this burst, said, very quietly, and approaching the marchioness,--

"Madame, it is not long since you a.s.sured me that it would be a positive happiness to be able to render me a service."

"And I mean it. I would gladly serve you, but not by inviting Mrs.

Gilmer to my ball: that is a little too much to demand."

"But this is the service I most need; a service for which I would be deeply grateful,--for which I could never sufficiently thank you,--which would attach me to you as nothing in the past has ever done."

"The offer of your grat.i.tude and the promise of your attachment are, certainly, very touching," said Madame de Fleury, with a scornful petulance which she had never before evinced toward Madeleine; "but I beg leave to decline the indebtedness. You have forced me to remember, for the first time, that when a lady in my station deals with a person in your sphere, it is possible to be _too_ kind, _too_ condescending, _too_ ready to forget necessary distinctions, and thus to draw upon one's self the consequences of that forgetfulness. You have given me a lesson, mademoiselle, by which I shall profit: in future I shall remember the distance between us."

She walked toward the work-room and called Victorine, who immediately responded to the summons.

Pointing to the _carton_, the indignant lady gave the order, "Have that dress placed in my carriage."

"No!" said Madeleine, addressing Victorine, commandingly. "Let the dress remain where it is."

"What do you mean, mademoiselle?" asked the marchioness, in angry astonishment.

"That dress is still mine!" answered Madeleine.

"Yours?"

"It is mine, and we will each keep that which belongs to us,--_you_ the privilege of your rank; I, the results of my labor, however humble."

"Do I understand you rightly? Have you the hardihood to say"--

Madeleine interrupted her,--

"That I refuse to part with that dress for gold, or for any compensation you can offer, except the one already named,--an invitation for Mrs.

Gilmer to your ball."

"She shall never have one! I have said it, and nothing can change my resolution."

"Nor mine! We are in the same position, madame, in spite of the _difference of our stations_," answered Madeleine, with cold sarcasm.

"Nothing can change my resolution."

"But the dress is mine!" cried Madame de Fleury. "I will prove that it is mine; but we will settle that question afterward. Meantime, I order you, Mademoiselle Victorine, to have that dress placed in my carriage."

"I order you not to touch it!" said Madeleine.

Madame de Fleury now became so much exasperated that she seemed to be on the point of seizing the dress and carrying it off in her arms.