"I ought to have been here to receive you. But, just fancy, Worms brought me this costume this morning. I tried it on and found it rather successful. It is very stylish, isn't it?" She had placed herself before a mirror. Maxime was coming and going behind her to examine her on all sides. "However as I put on the coat," she added, "I noticed there was a large fold there on the left shoulder, do you see? That fold is very ugly, it makes me look as if I had one shoulder higher than the other." He had approached and passed his finger over the fold as if to smooth it down, and his vicious schoolboy hand seemed to tarry on the spot with a certain amount of satisfaction. "Well," she continued, "I couldn't wait. I had the horses harnessed and I went to tell Worms what I thought of his inconceivable carelessness. He promised me he would set it right." Then she remained in front of the mirror still looking at herself, lost as it were in a sudden reverie. She ended by placing a finger on her lips with an air of thoughtful impatience. And in a low voice as if talking to herself she said: "There is something wanting--yes, really, there is something wanting--" Then, with quick motion, she turned and stationed herself in front of Maxime and asked him: "Is it really the thing? Don't you think there is something wanting, a trifle, a bow somewhere?" The schoolboy, reassured by the young woman's familiarity, had regained all the assurance of his forward nature. He drew back, drew near, blinked his eyes and muttered: "No, no, nothing's wanting, it's very pretty, very pretty--I rather think that there is something too much." He slightly blushed despite his audacity, drew still nearer, and tracing with his finger-tip an acute angle on Renée's breast: "In your place," he continued, "I should round that lace like that and put on a necklace with a large cross." She clapped her hands and looked radiant. "That's it, that's it," she cried, "I had the large cross on the tip of my tongue." She folded back her chemisette, disappeared for a couple of minutes, and then returned with the necklace and the cross, and placing herself again in front of the mirror with an air of triumph: "Oh! that's the ticket, quite the ticket," she muttered. "The little shearling isn't at all a fool. Did you dress women in the country then? I see that we shall really be good friends. But you must listen to me. To begin with, you must let your hair grow and you mustn't wear that frightful tunic any more. Besides, you must pay proper attention to my lessons in good manners. I want you to be a nice young man." "Why, of course," said the child naively, "as papa is rich at present and as you are his wife." She smiled and with her usual vivacity: "Then let us begin by thee-and-thouing one another. I say thou and you in the same breath. It's stupid. You will love me a great deal?"