She then looked at herself in the mirror and thought that perhaps the Duke would admire her dress. It was made of the beautiful Florentine silk that was the finest in Italy.
Safina had, however, deliberately not bought many gowns before she left.
As she was to be a debutante, she was sure that her father would wish her to buy a great number of gowns from the best dressmakers in London.
The clothes she had were those that she had worn for her last year at school with the addition of just three or four dresses she had purchased so that she would not look too dowdy on her first days at home.
‘Perhaps I shall eventually be as dilapidated and threadbare as this house,’ she told her reflection, ‘but I will try not to be bitter about it.’
She walked downstairs with her head held high and fou
