"It won't make any matte what you wear," said Mrs. Lander. "It'll be the
greatest thing; and if 't wa'n't for this sea-sickness that I have to
keep fightin' off he'a, night and day, I should come up and see you
myself. You ah' just lovely in that dance, Clementina."

"Do you think so, Mrs. Landa?" asked the girl, gratefully. "Well, Mr.
Milray didn't seem to think that I need to have a pleated skut. Any rate,
I'm going to look over my things, and see if I can't make something else
do."




XVII.

The entertainment was to be the second night after that, and Mrs. Milray
at first took the whole affair into her own hands. She was willing to let
the others consult with her, but she made all the decisions, and she
became so prepotent that she drove Lord Lioncourt to rebellion in the
case of some theatrical people whom he wanted in the programme. He wished
her to let them feel that they were favoring rather than favored, and she
insisted that it should be quite the other way. She professed a scruple
against having theatrical people in the programme at all, which she might
not have felt if her own past had been different, and she spoke with an
abhorrence of the stage which he could by no means tolerate in the case.
She submitted with dignity when she could not help it. Perhaps she
submitted with too much dignity. Her concession verged upon hauteur; and
in her arrogant meekness she went back to another of her young men, whom
she began to post again as the companion of her promenades.