“All right. Come on … now.”
She led the way down from the attic. Her bedroom was very grand -white and gold with rich carpets and beautiful tapestries on the walls.
“This house was damaged during the Revolution,” she told me, ‘but the Emperor was very insistent that Paris should be beautiful again. They say Paris was like a phoenix rising out of the ruins. “
“It is very beautiful,” I replied.
“How fortunate you are to live in such a place.”
“Some people are happy without beautiful houses. I saw a girl in a modiste’s shop when I was riding past the other day. A young man was with her and she was trying on a hat. He looked at her and kissed her.
She looked so happy and I thought: She’s happier than I am. And I wondered if she was going to marry the young man who kissed her. He would be someone she had chosen for herself. “
I said: “You never know what is going on in other people’s lives. I was once envious of a girl in a pastry cook shop. She was serving the cakes and she looked so beautiful among all the loaves of freshly baked bread and fancy cakes. I had a governess then and I could not get my sums right. I hated arithmetic and when I saw that girl serving the cakes I said to myself: She never has to do horrid sums. How I wish I could change places with her. A few weeks later that shop was burned down and I heard that the beautiful girl had been burned to death.”
The Princesse was staring at me incredulously.
“So,” I went on, ‘you should never envy anyone. You should never really want to change places for something you really don’t know very much about. If you don’t like what’s happening to you, find a way out of it or accept it . whichever you think best. “
“I suppose you are very clever.”
“I’m good at my job.”
“The Baron said you were good, didn’t he?”
“He appreciated my work.”
“You did a picture of him. He sat for you.”
“He did and I am glad to say that he was a very good sitter.”
“I suppose I shall have to sit for you.”
“It is the reason why I’m here. I should like to see you in blue. I think that would suit you. It would bring out the glow of your skin.”
She touched her face. I thought how young she was and I forgave her everything-her silly little masquerade of the night before and her rudeness in breaking her appointment. I saw her as a frightened child.
“Would you like me to see what you have to wear?” I asked.
“We could perhaps find a favourite dress of yours. I myself prefer blue, but it may be that you have something else which would be equally good.”
“I have a great many dresses,” she said.
“I have been presented to the Empress. I thought I should have some fun perhaps, but when the Baron decided to marry me that put an end to that.”
“When are you to marry?”
“Very soon. Next month … on my eighteenth birthday.”
She looked at me suddenly and stopped and it occurred to me that she would very easily share confidences. Poor child! I had discovered a good deal about her in a short time and I knew that she was lonely and frightened.
“How would it be if we decided on the dress now,” I said, ‘and we could start the miniature tomorrow morning. I should like to be early . soon after nine o’clock. The light should be good then. The miniature, I understand, is to be mounted in the same way as the one I did of the Baron. It is in gold with diamonds and sapphires. It is absolutely magnificent, as you know. That is one of the reasons why I thought blue for the dress. “
“All right. Come on … now.”
She led the way down from the attic. Her bedroom was very grand white and gold with rich carpets and beautiful tapestries on the walls.
“This house was damaged during the Revolution,” she told me, ‘but the Emperor was very insistent that Paris should be beautiful again. They say Paris was like a phoenix rising out of the ruins. “
“It is very beautiful,” I replied.
“How fortunate you are to live in such a place.”
“Some people are happy without beautiful houses. I saw a girl in a modiste’s shop when I was riding past the other day. A young man was with her and she was trying on a hat. He looked at her and kissed her.
She looked so happy and I thought: She’s happier than I am. And I wondered if she was going to marry the young man who kissed her. He would be someone she had chosen for herself I said: “You never know what is going on in other people’s lives. I was once envious of a girl in a pastry cook shop. She was serving the cakes and she looked so beautiful among all the loaves of freshly baked bread and fancy cakes. I had a governess then and I could not get my sums right. I hated arithmetic and when I saw that girl serving the cakes I said to myself: She never has to do horrid sums. How I wish I could change places with her. A few weeks later that shop was burned down and I heard that the beautiful girl had been burned to death.”
The Princesse was staring at me incredulously.
“So,” I went on, ‘you should never envy anyone. You should never really want to change places for something you really don’t know very much about. If you don’t like what’s happening to you, find a way out of it or accept it . whichever you think best. “
“Why … was the girl burned to death? Why did the shop catch fire?”
“Something went wrong with her father’s ovens, I suppose. But it taught me a lesson which I’m passing on to you. Now. shall we look at the dresses?”
There were rows of them. I found a peacock blue silk which I thought would tone in well with the sapphires. I asked if she would try it on so that I could see her in it.
She was only too ready to, and when she had done so I decided it was just right.
“That’s settled then. Tomorrow morning. Is nine too early?”
“Nine-thirty,” she said; and I knew that she would be there.
So began my acquaintance with the Princesse Marie Claude de Crespigny.
It flourished quickly. She apparently liked my attitude to her moods.
I neither complained nor was I subservient; I just maintained a cool indifference. I was there to paint a picture and I wanted to do it as well as I could. Over the first sitting we became quite friendly. She talked a great deal, which was what I wanted. There was something very appealing and feminine about her. I would bring that out in the portrait . a complement to the overpowering bully of a man who was to be her husband. I would make the miniatures a study in contrasts -the overwhelmingly masculine man and the decidedly feminine woman.
They would be an exquisite pair in their diamond and sapphire settings both in blue that lovely shade of blue. No wonder people called it heavenly.
I was enjoying this now. To sit in that room and paint and not to have to do it surreptitiously as I had at Centeville. Ah, Centeville, there could never be another experience such as that! I laughed to think of all the precautions we had taken when all the time the Baron knew.
“You’re smiling, Mademoiselle Collison. I know why. You are thinking of’ Bertrand de Mortemer.”
“Bertrand de Mortemer,” I murmured, flushing. She was delighted to see me momentarily embarrassed.
“Oh yes. I heard that he brought you here. And he said he would call on you. He is very good-looking. I suppose you like him a great deal.”
“I like him.”
“Shall you marry him, Mademoiselle Collison?”
I hesitated and she cried: “Oh, you will. That will be so nice too.
You’ll become French. People do change their nationality when they marry, don’t they? They take that of their husbands. Why shouldn’t men take the nationality of their wives? “