Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/202

Rh great Contes de Mère d'Oie Quadrille to open the Roubleskoff ball next week?"

"I shall never speak to either of them as long as I live," said Madame Mila, still ruffling all her golden feathers in highest wrath. "As for the quadrille—the Roubleskoff must do as they can. I do think Krunensberg has made Nina perfectly odious; I never saw anybody so altered by a man in my life. Well, there's one thing, it won't last. His 'affairs' never do."

"It will last as long as her jewels do," said Carlo Maremma.

"Oh, no, he can't be quite so bad as that."

"Foi d'honneur!—since he left the Sant' Anselmo you have never seen her family diamonds except in the Paris paste replica, which she tells you she wears for safety, and because it is such a bore to have to employ policemen in plain clothes at the balls"

"Talk of policemen!" said Madame Mila, "they say we're to have a caution sent us from the Prefecture about our playing baccarat the other night at the café—they say no gambling is allowed in the city—the idea!"

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