This comes of poverty and love of dress; not of dishonesty and love of dress; and just ask yourself, is there a creature that ought to be pitied more and handled more delicately than a _poor lady?_ Why, you would make her writhe with shame and distress! Well, I do think there is not a single wild animal so cruel to another wild animal as a woman is to a woman. You are cruel to one another by instinct. But I appeal to your reason--if you have any."Zoe's eyes filled. "You are right," said she, humbly. "Thank you for thinking for me. I will not say a word to her before _you."_"That is a good girl. But, come now, why say a word at all?""Oh, it is no use your demanding impossibilities, dear. I could no more help speaking to her than I could fly; and don't go fancying she will care a pin what I say, if I don't say it before _a gentleman."_Having given him this piece of information, she left her ambush, and proceeded to meet the all-unconscious blue girl; but, even as they went, Vizard returned to his normal condition, and doled out, rather indolently, that they were out on pleasure, and might possibly miss the object of the excursion if they were to encourage a habit of getting into rages about nothing.
Zoe was better than her word. She met Fanny with open admiration: to be sure, she knew that apathy, or even tranquillity, on first meeting the blues, would be instantly set down to envy.
"And where did you get it, dear?"
"At quite a small shop."
"French?"
"Oh, no; I think she was an Austrian. This is not a French mixture: loud, discordant colors, that is the French taste.""Here is heresy," said Vizard. "Why, I thought the French beat the world in dress.""Yes, dear," said Zoe, "in form and pattern. But Fanny is right; they make mistakes in color. They are terribly afraid of scarlet; but they are afraid of nothing else: and many of their mixtures are as discordant to the eye as Wagner's music to the ear. Now, after all, scarlet is the king of colors; and there is no harm in King Scarlet, if you treat him with respect and put a modest subject next to him.""Gypsy locks, for instance," suggested Fanny, slyly.