Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/139

 though with the peculiar optimism of ladies in her position she was perfectly certain that he was adamant also to all save herself. And the idea of her fastidious cousin's hopeless passion so tickled her fancy that she laughed herself into a good humour as her maids disrobed her; and she curled herself up in her bed to get a good night's sleep out before donning the Dissimulée costume for the Trasimene ball, so that she should go at half-past three "as fresh as paint," in the most literal sense of the word, to all the joyous rioting of the cotillon which Maurice was to lead.

"You shine upon us late, Madame," said Della Rocca, advancing to meet the Lady Hilda, when they reached, at four o'clock in the morning, the vast and lofty rooms glittering with fancy dresses.

"I only came at all to please Mila, and she only comes for the cotillon," she answered him, and she thought how well he looked as she glanced at him. He wore a white Louis Treize Mousquetaire dress, and he had the collar of the Golden Fleece about his throat, for, amongst his