The Wedding Dress Read Free Page A

open. I think I owed my chance to a fortunate likeness and the right measurements. Then, before I really found my place in the next Collection, I married Florian. So we never found out. ” But she laughed again, on a happy note which suggested she was satisfied to remain unknowing of her real qualifications since she had achieved her heart’s desire instead.
    “ Then I suppose ” — Loraine glanced across at the beautiful bride, now the centre of congratulation and admiration — “ I suppose Marianne had that indefinable quality you speak of? ”
    “ Oh, no. Not at all, according to Florian himself. She’s a lovely, charming girl and a perfect darling. But not a designer’s source of inspiration. That’s something quite different. It’s — ” Gabrielle gestured a little helplessly, a curiously French movement, to show how impossible it was to explain the inexplicable.
    “ But Monsieur Florian was Marianne’s employer, surely? ”
    “ Oh, yes, of course. But she was in the boutique downstairs. A wonderful saleswoman and a great attraction there. ”
    “ I see. ” Loraine considered that thoughtfully, her wide grey eyes reflective between their smoky dark lashes. “ Then I wonder just what — ”
    “ Mademoiselle, you played your part very well today. ” It was Florian himself who had come up unexpectedly to add his word of approval.
    “ Oh, thank you, monsieur. ” Loraine glanced at him shyly. “ I tried to walk and stand as Madame Moisant had told us. ”
    “ No, no. ” He shook his head and regarded her with that faint, reflective smile which always meant either that he was intensely interested or cleverly hiding the fact that he was bored. “ You did nothing so deliberate and tiresome as that. You had completely absorbed Madame Moisant’s advice so that you were able to forget about it all when the time came. And quite rightly so. You were thinking of something quite different from the necessity of standing correctly behind the bride, weren’t you? That was why your face was interesting. ”
    “ Well, I — I — How did you know, monsieur? ” asked Loraine, coloring slightly.
    “ Because it is my business to know these things, ” Florian replied with a dry little smile. “ Of what were you thinking, petite ? ”
    “ Do I — have to tell you? ”
    “ Not necessarily. But I should like to know. ”
    “ Then I was thinking of someone — of two people, I mean — whom I like very much. And I was wondering when I would see him — them again. ”
    If Florian noticed the two slight corrections — and without doubt he did — he made no sign of doing so. He merely inquired, with an air of kindly interest:
    “ What exactly are you doing here in Paris, mademoiselle? ”
    She thought it was nice of him to inquire so much after her welfare, which was the effect that Florian had on most people when he was finding out something he wanted to know.
    “ I’m not doing anything specific, ” Loraine explained easily. “ My father died recently and made Mr. Cardine my guardian. As he lives here, the most obvious thing was for me to join him until — until it was decided what to do with me. ”
    She was unaware that a faintly melancholy shade crossed her face at that point. But the observant Frenchman watching her missed nothing. He said, aside, to his wife in French:
    “ The face is wonderfully expressive. ”
    Gabrielle looked surprised. So did Loraine, for her French was quite equal to what Florian had said. And, opening her grey eyes wide again, she said:
    “ Do you mean — my face, monsieur? ”
    “ Your face, mon enfant. ”
    “ Is it? ” She put up her hand to her cheek, in a doubtful, questing little gesture, as though she might almost be able to feel the quality which Florian had mentioned.
    “ The movement of the hands too. You see what I mean? ” Again the Frenchman spoke to his wife, as though Loraine were a child who would not follow.
    “ Yes — I think so. ” Gabrielle