The Great Pearl Secret

								

machine, will take some time.  Miladi knows what a quantity of the
hairs there are on the pretty head of Mademoiselle, and how she is
exacting of the way everything is done!"
The red-haired lady guessed from the Frenchwoman's tone that Simone
considered the introduction of a coiffeur a slight to her own skill.
"Why, yes," she agreed.  "Mademoiselle is exacting.  But what would
you?  She is a spoiled child.  The least crumple in a rose-leaf--by the
way, Simone" (she stopped for a little throaty chuckle), "is it true
about the carpet in this suite?"
"The carpet, Miladi?"  Simone flushed faintly through her dark skin,
and "Miladi" made a second guess.  Of course Juliet trusted Simone, and
depended upon her blindly; but she--Emmy West--had often wondered how
certain spicy little items concerning the Phayre family reached the
gossip columns of "society papers."
"I read such an amusing paragraph in Modern Ways this morning," she
explained.  "It was apropos of the wedding, of course.  Modern Ways
loves a chance for a 'dig' at us Americans who marry well-known
Englishmen!  It said that when Miss Juliet Phayre and her Uncle Henry
came over from Paris the other day, and took this royal suite which Mr.
Phayre had engaged, Miss Phayre sent for the manager before she'd been
in the hotel half an hour.  'There's a spot of ink on the carpet,' she
complained (according to the paper).  'I must have another carpet at
once.'  Now do tell me, Simone (I'm very discreet!) did that really
happen?"
"It did, Madame," the maid admitted.  "Though how it got to these
sacred journalists----"
"And did the manager say to Mademoiselle, 'We have had half the kings
of Europe in this suite since that spot appeared, Miss Phayre, and not
one of them mentioned it!'"
"His words were to that effect, Miladi, so far as I remember.  But----"
"Oh, then you were in the room?  What fun!  You can tell me if
Juliet--if Mademoiselle replied that a spotted carpet might be good
enough for a king; it wasn't good enough for a Phayre."
Simone flung out her hands, palm upward.  They were beautifully
manicured hands, as carefully tended as her mistress's.  And as she
smiled her teeth showed very white.  When her face was grave, she
looked somewhat sullen, and might be thirty-five; but the smile was
rejuvenating.  It put her back to twenty-eight, and made her almost
handsome as well as chic.  "Miladi has known Mademoiselle since her
schooldays, is it not?" she hedged.  "Miladi will be able to judge as
well as if I told her whether Mademoiselle would have made that answer."
"I thought it rang true when I read it!" laughed Lady West.  "But
Simone, when you say I have 'known Mademoiselle since her schooldays',
you make me sound awfully antique.  We were at Madame de Sain's
together.  I came over to England the year I left, and married poor Sir
Algy only three months after I was presented."  She thought it best to
hammer these details into Simone's head, in case the woman really was