Page:The Blind Bow-Boy (IA blindbowboy00vanv).pdf/115

 aloud. . . . There were a few orders for the cook, which Campaspe delivered through Frederika. She never had trouble with servants. She had a system, which was to give each of them a certain part of the work to do. When they had completed their allotted tasks they could come or go as they liked. She put no restrictions on their time. As for Frederika, a middle-aged Alsatian woman, with a sad face, which reminded Campaspe irresistibly of Duse's, she adored her mistress, and was inventive in contriving ways to please her.

After her bath, Campaspe dressed carefully but comfortably. She liked to feel the stiff brush moving through her hair, and the pressure of Frederika's arm. She took quite as much pleasure in her body as she did in her mind. Was not her body, indeed, her chief mental pleasure? . . . An hour later she descended to the salon in a frock designed by Erte, of cornflower-blue batiste, with soft butter-colour linen collar and cuffs. The drawing-room was spacious and cool. Campaspe did not like crowded rooms. There were few rugs, few pictures, few pieces of furniture. The chairs and the couches were covered with toile de Jouy, with a design printed in mauve, a design in which Cupid and Pysche embraced in the company of nightingales and camellias. The pictures on the walls were by Monticelli, Derain, Jennie Vanvleet Cowdery, and Matisse. Near the high windows, looking down on the street below, stood great jars of