"
"I seldom pay dressmakers."
"Ah! Then you belong to the most exclusive set!"
"Or perhaps I make my own dresses--"
"Sh! Not so loud. Supposing some one should overhear you?"
"It was a slip of the tongue. And yet, you should be lenient to all."
"Kind heart! Ah, I wonder what all those interrogation points
mean--the black domino there?"
"Possibly she represents Scandal."
"Scandal, then, is symbolized by the interrogation point?"
"Yes. Whoever heard of scandal coming to a full stop, that is to say,
a period."
"I learn something every minute. A hundred years ago you would have
been a cousin to Mademoiselle de Necker."
"Or Madame de Stael."
"Oh, if you are married--"
"I shall have ceased to interest you?"
"On the contrary. Only, marriage would account for the bitterness of
your tone. What does the Blue Domino represent?"
"The needle of the compass." She stretched a sleeve out toward me and
I observed for the first time the miniature compasses woven in the
cloth. Surely, one does not rent a costume like this.
"I understand now why you attracted me. Whither will you guide
me?'"--sentimentally.
"Through dark channels and stormy seas, over tropic waters, 'into the
haven under the hill.
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