After due consideration as to what she should wear, Ilouka had chosen what she thought was one of her prettier gowns that her mother had bought for her to wear at smart parties or a ball.
It was not white, which would have been conventional for a young debutante, but very pale green with a full skirt that billowed out from a tiny waist and with puffed sleeves of the same material.
The décolletage displayed Ilouka’s white skin, which her father had said had a magnolia-like quality about it.
The only ornamentation that she wore was round her neck was a little cameo set with tiny diamonds that was hung on a ribbon of the same colour as her gown.
She had taken a great deal of trouble in arranging her hair in a more elaborate manner than her mother felt was correct for a young girl. Because
