“Which changes its color now and then,” observed the sharpest of the three Wermant sisters.  “Extraordinary is just the word for it.  At present it is dark red.  Henna did that, I suppose.  Raoul—­our brother—­when he was in Africa saw Arab women who used henna.  They tied their heads up in a sort of poultice made of little leaves, something like tea-leaves.  In twenty-four hours the hair will be dyed red, and will stay red for a year or more.  You can try it if you like.  I think it is disgusting.”

“Oh! look, there is Madame de Sternay.  I recognized her by her perfume before I had even seen her.  What delightful things good perfumes are!”

“What is it?  Is it heliotrope or jessamine?” asked Yvonne d’Etaples, sniffing in the air.

“No—­it is only orris-root—­nothing but orris-root; but she puts it everywhere about her—­in the hem of her petticoat, in the lining of her dress.  She lives, one might say, in the middle of a sachet.  The thing that will please me most when I am married will be to have no limit to my perfumes.  Till then I have to satisfy myself with very little,” sighed Jacqueline, drawing a little bunch of violets from the loose folds of her blouse, and inhaling their fragrance with delight.

“‘Tiens’! here comes somebody who has to be contented with much less,” said Yvonne, as a young girl joined their circle.  She was small, awkward, timid, and badly dressed.  On seeing her Colette whispered “Oh! that tiresome Giselle.  We sha’n’t be able to talk another word.”

Jacqueline kissed Giselle de Monredon.  They were distant cousins, though they saw each other very seldom.  Giselle was an orphan, having lost both her father and her mother, and was being educated in a convent from which she was allowed to come out only on great occasions.  Her grandmother, whose ideas were those of the old school, had placed her there.  The Easter holidays accounted for Giselle’s unexpected arrival.  Wrapped in a large cloak which covered up her convent uniform, she looked, as compared with the gay girls around her, like a poor sombre night-moth, dazzled by the light, in company with other glittering creatures of the insect race, fluttering with graceful movements, transparent wings and shining corselets.

“Come and have some sandwiches,” said Jacqueline, and she drew Giselle to the tea-table, with the kind intention apparently of making her feel more at her ease.  But she had another motive.  She saw some one who was very interesting to her coming at that moment toward the table.  That some one was a man about forty, whose pointed black beard was becoming slightly gray—­a man whom some people thought ugly, chiefly because they had never seen his somewhat irregular features illumined by a smile which, spreading from his lips to his eyes, lighted up his face and transformed it.  The smile of Hubert Marien was rare, however.  He was exclusive in his friendships, often silent, always somewhat