Madame Thierre immediately invited him for the evening. Rona tried to look pleased although she felt, after what she had just heard, that nothing could ever please her again.
At the end of five days everyone, except Rona, had new gowns, shoes, scarves, gloves. Jewellery was brought out from safes and polished. There was to be one more visit to Ginette, and then all was done.
It was a merry occasion. Alice put on her completed dress and went out into the corridor to parade up and down before the mirrors that lined one wall, looking at herself this way and that, studying the dress from all angles, while everyone cried approval.
Then they crowded back into the dressing room. Ginette produced a bottle of champagne, and even the young girls were allowed a sip.
As she was enjoying her glass
