Anna Alice Chapin

“ I cried aloud, an idea striking me with such force and originality that I nearly exploded. “Flavie! Can you rent me your mannequin?”
They thought me mad, of course. Probably I was a little mad. Félice assured me quite seriously afterwards that she looked up the telephone numbers of all the really expensive sanitoriums in Paris that afternoon.
I talked at them like a phonograph; simply chattered and racketed away, as excited as a baby over my great scheme, but providentially too incoherent to give the Maison Goujet a very lucid idea of my plans. ”

“ Philippe Pavaney laughed like a comedian at the Capucines. I surveyed Hugues with close attention from behind my mask. He was astonishingly good-looking; and truly that iron-grey moustache of his gave him a most distinguished appearance.
So he could smile, after all? He could smile at a coquettish little masked lady, but not at naughty Cleo, his troublesome wife. I began to perceive his possibilities. Certainly a domino is a great assistance in properly appraising one's husband. ”

“ They began to play a waltz in the ballroom—a drawling, delicious thing that moved one in a languid and yet piercing sort of way. I did not want to dance to it then; but I felt exactly the way one feels when one does want to dance. Do you know what I mean? My face tingled, and my heart seemed to turn all the way over two or three times, with a queer little thrill and floating sensation at every turn.
“Little mademoiselle,” said my husband, “do even women understand women? To a man they seem so strange—so strange. Do even their sisters understand them?” ”

“ I hoped that my mannequin was having a better time than I was.
I was not sure what I wanted. Women hardly ever are, in their hearts, if only they would tell the truth and admit it. Philippe Pavaney did not seem a very engaging person now that I saw him again. It was nice to have him madly infatuated with me, of course; but I found myself hoping against hope that he would not want to kiss me, or anything silly of that sort. It is odd that a woman will come close to contemplating eloping with a man whom she would hate to have hold her hand for very long. ”

“ And—well, le bon Dieu manages things very queerly, it seems to me, for women who wish to remain honest. Félice brought me a note from Philippe:—
Dear and Most Beautiful One—What is the use of further wretchedness for us both? You know I adore you, and you, who are all gentleness and mercy, cannot be entirely insensible to my feeling for you. Come to-night to the duchess's ball, and afterwards—we will go away together! Make all your plans, my bien aimé, as I shall make mine, and then allons! A life of love together!
Yours for ever,
P.
The audacity of it! ”

“ Blue! Silver! Pearl grey! Pale pink! Violet shadows! A real dream gown, madame! It needs a fairy to wear it.”
“A fairy like madame!” chimed Flavie.
“Exactly!” chirped Félice.
And the mannequin just smiled. And I was saying to myself:—
“Of course I do not intend to run away with that villain Philippe. But, all the same, it is detestable to have things settled for me so that I can't, anyway. I, who know myself to be nineteen and frivolous, know, too, that if a thing is made quite impossible for me, immediately, voilà! I must do it. The temptation is too great. ”

“ Once I saw myself—the mannequin, I mean—talking gravely to a dull dowager duchess, and managing her fan “like an old hand,” as they say in the States. I was immensely proud of her.
But where in the world was Philippe? I hunted for him high and low; in the conservatories where he might have been making love to the débutantes, and under the bright lights, where he must be making love to the married women. But he appeared to be nowhere. My husband I saw twice, looking courteously bored the first time, but pleased the second, for he was talking to Folicœur, whom he loves. ”

“ Coward!” I said to myself. But I could feel no anger. I was, really, too happy to care what Philippe did. I suppose I have no pride; but it is a fact that I do not a bit mind being rudely treated by people if I do not happen to care for them; and, of course, I had never cared a particle for Philippe.
I went back to the ballroom and unmasked with the rest. We had supper, and a lot of people praised my gown, and said had I had a nice time, and they were sure they had recognised me; but I had not seemed a bit like myself all the evening. I had supper with Hugues, and we went home early. ”

“ If Hugues is there—and he will be there, for the Duc de Folicœur is his oldest friend, and my husband will go to his house, when he is in far too bad a humour to go anywhere else—if Hugues is there, he will keep his eye upon me every single moment, and I—I shall simply be forced to run away with Philippe, which, of course, being a good woman and all that, I do not for one moment wish to be driven to do! ”

“ At best, we men are but creatures blundering among cobwebs and moonbeams when we deal with women. Our hearts may be full of song, but we lack the light touch upon the lute, and our voices are out of tune. ”

“ But when at last I went upstairs, and saw that love of a gown, I forgave Charlemagne everything. There really is nobody like him. The dress was simply gorgeous. I went crazy about it as the mannequin sailed about in it; and I could hardly wait to get it on myself.
The mannequin was an awfully pretty, chic sort of girl. I felt so sorry for her. To have the figure, and the style, and the looks to wear Goujet clothes, and always to have to do it as somebody else's proxy! ”

“ Still, if I had to earn my living, I'm sure I'd rather do it among dainty, rich things, and see good jewels, and well-bred people, and nice turnouts every day, than do any other work in the world.
It occurred to me, as I looked at that girl, that I wouldn't make a bad mannequin myself. She is built just precisely the way I am, and she has quite as good a carriage, and was ten times better looking. If you covered up her face, you'd swear it was I. Her hair is exactly the same colour ”

“ You can take care of a woman's person, but not her personality. You can protect her from everything in the world except what comes from within her soul. I do not believe that anything can be forced. If it is forced, it is artificial, of no value, monsieur. ”

“ He put his arm around me in the motor and kissed me, but we neither of us said a word.
When we got home I went straight to my rooms, and found the mannequin waiting for me. She was all nicely dressed in her own things, having turned my belongings over to Félice. I could not get much out of her concerning the evening as a whole. Evidently the gay world was rather a disappointment to her.
“Always I had thought it would be heaven,” she said, “to see the world of great ladies and fine messieurs; to be with them, and to hear them talk—not as one paid for a service, but as one of themselves. ”

“ It is dull red; not a bit coppery, you understand, but with almost pinkish tones in it. I think if I were painting it, I should put purple in,
It was while I was looking at the mannequin, and thinking how clever it was of Charlemagne to have found such a double of me to try on my clothes, that a new consideration began to bother me. Domino or no domino, mask or no mask, there was no disguising my sort of person. A fine time I should have at the ball! Hugues would be able to pick me out anywhere, just by my head and figure. ”

“ The mannequin and I practised voices carefully. She was wonderfully quick, and a perfect mimic; and I warned her to say very little, and to speak low. People would think I was trying to disguise my voice, anyway, as it was a masquerade. After we were through rehearsing there were simply two of me instead of one.
Hugues' valet came to the boudoir door late in the evening with a note. This was what it said:
My Dear Cléo,—I understand that you are going to the Folicœurs to-night. ”

“ Philippe would have said that it matched my eyes.
I insisted on stopping to order a domino on the way to the Rue de la Paix, and I felt feverishly excited. Félice kept shaking her head and muttering: “Sainte Marie! Sainte Marie!” under her breath, as she picked up my chatelaine and my muff. I dropped them six times before I got to Goujet. I think I frightened poor Félice, who is truly fond of me, quite as much by my sudden gaiety as I had by my seven days of moping.
II.
THE MANNEQUIN AT GOUJET'S.
You know, there really are compensations about being nineteen and frivolous. ”