“Écoutez, Marie, we need your help. See this lady. Will you regard her dress, her hair?”
“Mais, madame, c’est extraordinaire – ” Marie began.
“Marie, this lady is English. Does that explain anything?”
“Oh! les Anglais!”
The disgust in Marie’s tone made Cornelia laugh.
“No. She is right,” Renée said. “My poor child – and you must forgive me, madame, for addressing you so, but for the moment I am going to forget that you are someone very grand and important and remember only that you are Archie’s little cousin.”
“Please do that,” Cornelia nodded.
“Very well. To Archie’s cousin I can be very frank. Your gown, my dear, is terrible. I am sure it has cost a great deal of money and came from one of those so-called fashionable couturiers, which the English ladies patronise and imagine that
