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“You’re not going to tell me that is your sister-in-law,” I
gasped.
“That is Jane Napier,” said Mrs. Tower icily.
At that moment she was speaking. Her host was turned towards
her with an anticipatory smile. A baldish white-haired man, with a
sharp, intelligent face, who sat on her left, was leaning forward
eagerly, and the couple who sat opposite, ceasing to talk with one
another, listened intently. She said her say and they all, with a sudden
movement, threw themselves back in their chairs and burst into
vociferous laughter. From the other side of the table a man addressed
Mrs. Tower:
I recognized a famous statesman.
“Your sister-in-law has made another joke, Mrs. Tower,” he
said.
Mrs. Tower smiled.
“She’s priceless, isn’t she?”
“Let me have a long drink of champagne and then for heaven’s
sake tell me all about it,” I said.
Well, this is how I gathered it had all happened. At the
beginning of their honeymoon Gilbert took Jane to various
dressmakers in Paris and he made no objection to her choosing a
number of “gowns” after her own heart; but he persuaded her to have
a “frock” or two made according to his own design. It appeared that
he had a knack for that kind of work. He engaged a smart French
maid. Jane had never had such a thing before. She did her own
mending and when she wanted “doing up” she was in the habit of
ringing for the housemaid. The dresses Gilbert had devised were very
different from anything she had worn before; but he had been careful
not to go too far too quickly, and because it pleased him she
persuaded herself, though not without misgivings, to wear them in
preference to those she had chosen herself. Of course she could not
wear them with the voluminous petticoats she had been in the habit of
using, and these, though it cost her an anxious moment, she
discarded.
“Now, if you please,” said Mrs. Tower, with something very
like a sniff of disapproval, “she wears nothing but thin silk tights. It’s
a wonder to me she doesn’t catch her death of cold at her age.”
Gilbert and the French maid taught her how to wear her clothes,
and unexpectedly enough, she was very quick at learning. The French