A few shreds and fragments of finery, bought at odd times, swelled the
bill to L99 11s. 6d.--not to terrify the female mind with three figures.

And let no unsophisticated young lady imagine that the trimmings, which
constituted three-fourths of this bill, were worth anything. The word
"lace," in Madame Cie's bill, invariably meant machine-made trash,
worth tenpence a yard, but charged eighteen shillings a yard for one
pennyworth of work in putting it on. Where real lace was used, Madame
Cie always LET HER CUSTOMERS KNOW IT. Miss Lucas's bill for this year
contained the two following little items:--


Rich gros de cecile polonaise and jacket to match,
trimmed with Chantilly lace and valenciennes . . . 68 5
Superb robe de chambre, richly trimmed with skunk fur. 40 0

The customer found the stuff; viz., two shawls. Carolina found the nasty
little pole-cats, and got twenty-four shillings for them; Madame Cie
found THE REST.

But Christopher Staines had not Miss Lucas's bill to compare his wife's
with. He could only compare the latter with their income, and with male
notions of common sense and reason.

He went home, and into his studio, and sat down on his hard beech chair;
he looked round on his books and his work, and then, for the first time,
remembered how long and how patiently he had toiled for every hundred
pounds he had made; and he laid the evidences of his wife's profusion
and deceit by the side of those signs of painful industry and
self-denial, and his soul filled with bitterness. "Deceit! deceit!"