The Earl followed him into what was a quite decent sized room.
There was a bed draped with chiffon curtains in one corner of the room and seated at a dressing table in front of the bow window that overlooked the street was a young woman trying on a fashionable bonnet.
Beside her stood the milliner with one bonnet in her hand and several others arrayed in their round boxes on the floor.
“Monsieur Rowlands, m’mselle!” the maid announced from the door, “et un autre gentilhomme.”
The woman at the mirror turned round.
“Richard! Quelle chance! I need your advice. ’How do I look?”
There was no doubt of the answer she expected, for her small piquant face with flashing eyes fringed with dark eyelashes and a red mouth that curved provocatively at the corners was framed by a black bonnet trimme
