'
Of course, after this Lesbia consented to the amethysts being dealt with
according to Mr. Cabochon's taste.
'Which is simply perfect,' interjected Lady Kirkbank.
And now Lesbia's campaign began in real earnest--a life of pleasure, a
life of utter selfishness and self-indulgence, which would go far to
pervert the strongest mind, tarnish the purest nature. To dress and be
admired--that was what Lesbia's life meant from morning till night. She
had no higher or nobler aim. Even on Sunday mornings at the fashionable
church, where the women sat on one side of the nave and the men on the
other, where divinest music was as a pair of wings, on which the
enraptured soul flew heavenward--even here Lesbia thought more of her
bonnet and gloves--the _chic_ or non-_chic_ of her whole costume, than
of the service. She might kneel gracefully, with her bent head, just
revealing the ivory whiteness of a lovely throat, between the edge of
her lace frilling and the flowers in her bonnet. She might look the
fairest image of devotion; but how could a woman pray whose heart was a
milliner's shop, whose highest ambition was to be prettier and better
dressed than other women?
The season was six weeks old.
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