She was devoted to Constance, but she stood on her rights.
Presently a little space was cleared on the floor, and Constance, seeing that it was nearly seven o'clock, and the Hoopers supped at half past, took off her black dress with its crape, and put on a white one, high to the throat and long-sleeved; a French demi-toilette, plain, and even severe in make, but cut by the best dressmaker in Nice.

She looked extraordinarily tall and slim in it and very foreign.

Her maid clasped a long string of opals, which was her only ornament, about her neck.

She gave one look at herself in the glass, holding herself proudly, one might have said arrogantly.

But as she turned away, and so that Annette could not see her, she raised the opals, and held them a moment softly to her lips.