The Shadow and the Star Read Free

silent a moment. "You are obliged to dress yourself appropriately to your position. I can't permit an alteration in the contract, you understand. The terms were clearly stated to you when you came to us. It would set a precedent I cannot afford to set."
    "No, ma'am," Leda said faintly.
    Another little silence passed, barely endurable. "I shall see what can be arranged," Mrs. Isaacson said at last.
    Relief flowed through Leda.
    "Thank you, ma'am. Thank you." She sketched a curtsy while Mrs. Isaacson lifted her skirt and turned away.
    Leda looked down at the cards. As was becoming standard practice in this year of exotic visitors, someone from the Foreign Office had sent along helpful etiquette tickets. Below the date were the scheduled appointments.
     
    Japan party—8.00 a.m.
    H.R.H. the Imperial Princess Terute-No-Miya of Japan. To be addressed
Your Serene Highness
. No English.
    Imperial Consort Okubo Otsu of Japan. To be addressed
Your Serene Highness
. No English.
    Lady Inouye of Japan. As daughter and representative of Count Inouye, Japan Minister of Foreign Affairs, to be addressed per diplomatic usage
Your Excellency
. Fluent English, educated in England, will interpret with no difficulty.
     
    Hawaiian (Sandwich Islands) party—10.00 a.m.
    H.M. Queen Kapiolani of the Hawaiian Islands. To be addressed
Your Majesty. A
very little English, will need interpreter.
    H.R.H. Princess Liliyewokalani, Crown Princess of the Hawaiian Islands. To be addressed
Your Highness
. Fluent English, will interpret with no difficulty.
    Lady Ashland, Marchioness of Ashland and her daughter Lady Catherine. Presently resident in the Hawaiian Islands. Intimates of the Hawaiian queen and princess.
    Leda flipped back and forth through the tickets, memorizing the titles while the apprentice finished her hem. This was Leda's element. Miss Myrtle Balfour had been zealous in her mission to bring up Leda in the proper etiquette to be observed by those received in good society. And truly, Leda had been received very cordially by the widows and spinsters of South Street. The aura of pleasant scandal that Miss Myrtle still retained from the days of
that unspeakable man
, in spite of some forty-odd years of living quietly retired in her parents' house, was a passport to any number of odd fits and starts. A Balfour was to be allowed, even encouraged, to have her eccentricities—it gave a sweet tinge of adventure and daring to the demure little society in South Street. So the South Street ladies had bridled up and given a pretty direct snub to anyone who might question Miss Myrtle's sense when she'd taken the notion to shelter the little daughter of a Frenchwoman in her home, and clasped Leda quite to their well-bred bosoms, so she had grown to womanhood among the faded flowers of Mayfair aristocracy, counting the elderly daughters of earls and vintage sisters of baronets as her close acquaintance.
    All these Majesties and Highnesses were a bit grander than what she was accustomed to, however, and very kind and attentive of the Foreign Office it was to clarify the various relationships in advance, so as to avoid any threat of uncomfortable lapses. It would all pass off perfectly well, as it had when the Maharani and the Siamese ladies and the female mandarin had come last week.
    With her hem finished, she went to select fabrics, carrying bolt after heavy bolt of brocades and velvets and silks to pile behind the counters in the showroom, where the tall, mirrored panels reflected back the rich pattern of the violet and amber carpet in the huge room. Other showroom women were doing the same, preparing for the press of regular clients, most all of them appointed for much later and more civilized hours of the day. She'd just laid the last bolt of striped silk atop the pile when the footman ushered Their Serene Highnesses of Japan into the showroom.
    Madame Elise
cum
Isaacson hurried to curtsy and scrape before the four delicate Oriental ladies who stood like