"Let me finish.--See, there is Madame de V---- coming in: do you hear the door creaking?--Well, as I was saying, I had to buy two braids, for the very simple reason that I lost the first. It was very funny. We had hired a coupe for the day, papa having taken ours for himself: he always does. We started off for the hairdresser's in this hired carriage. I bought a superb braid, and they wrapped it up nicely for me. I got into the coupe and put my little parcel up against the window, you know, under the strap that you pull it up and down by. That was all very nice, but when we got home, and I was looking for my parcel before getting out, no parcel was to be found. I made a great fuss, and mamma did too. Only think! it had slipped in by the glass of the window, and had fallen into the inside of the door. I suppose it's still there. There's no way of getting it again, you see, so I had to buy another braid" (bending down her head coquettishly), "which I have the honor of introducing to you: it is thick, of a good color--one of the very best." "Oh, I wish I could have one, but I'm afraid I sha'n't before I'm married.--See, there is Jeanne bowing to us. Oh, that everlasting dress of hers! Doesn't she look like a fright with that pink pom-pon in her hair and her red nose? She's a kind-hearted girl, but then that pink! Pink never looks well with light hair. It always looks to me like salmon with white sauce. Ha! ha! Speaking of salmon, by the way, you left too early the other evening: we had such a supper, my dear!" "Oh, how lovely Juliette looked! Didn't she? What a lovely head she has! I would give ten years of my life to have a head like hers. Ten years, dear me! yes, gladly: life isn't such very good fun, after all. And how becoming that headdress was to her!" "It was really magnificent: you know it came from Persia." "Did it, really? From Persia? I heard it came from--you know the place, ever so far off, where the colonies are. And how about her marriage?" "It's broken off: she said no, and it's all settled." "But the trousseau? Mamma saw the three cashmere shawls, three wonders! One had red ground with little figures on it--you know the sort they're wearing now: that shawl was really eloquent. I think that sort of thing is like music, it delights one so." "That was very fine--three cashmeres, and diamonds too, and she said no?" "She said no, and she was right, for it seems he limped frightfully." "Who did?" "The gentleman, of course." "But, my dear girl, people always give three cashmeres. Only think a minute: the long cashmere for calls in winter--well, that's one; then you must have a square one: it would kill you to wear a long cashmere in hot weather; and then you could not refuse a third to go to the bath or to mass in--well, that makes three, don't you see? I would not be married with fewer. No, thank you, I wouldn't go about looking like a chambermaid. No, indeed I wouldn't."