"Brava! It will be real fun. There are no end of foreign titles
coming, I believe. The Colonel's a bit grumpy about it,--he always
is when he has to wear his dress suit. He just hates it. That man
hasn't a particle of vanity. He looks handsomer in his evening
clothes than in anything else, and yet he doesn't see it. But tell
me," and her pretty face became serious with a true feminine
anxiety, "whatever will you wear? You've brought no ball fixings,
have you?"

I finished twisting up the last coil of my hair, and turned and
kissed her affectionately. She was the most sweet-tempered and
generous of women, and she would have placed any one of her
elaborate costumes at my disposal had I expressed the least desire
in that direction. I answered:

"No, dear; I certainly have no regular ball 'fixings,' for I never
expected to dance here, or anywhere for that matter. I did not bring
the big trunks full of Parisian toilettes that you indulge in, you
spoilt bride! Still I have something that may do. In fact it will
have to do."

"What is it? Have I seen it? Do show!" and her curiosity was
unappeasable.

The discreet Alphonse tapped at the door again just at this moment.

"Entrez!" I answered; and our tea, prepared with the tempting nicety
peculiar to the Hotel de L----, appeared. Alphonse set the tray down
with his usual artistic nourish, and produced a small note from his
vest-pocket.