"I will give him greater pleasure when I go to school," said Margot. "I will bring him back day by day stories--ah, of the funniest. He will laugh. Thou wilt see, Comtesse, how he will enjoy himself."
"_Ma petite_, thou hast a wise head," said the Comtesse. "Thou shalt have thy way. There is a school for the trimming of hats and for the perfect education in the French tongue, by one Thérèse Marcelle. I will take thee to her to-morrow morning."
"But I don't want to learn to trim hats," said Margot.
"Ah, but it is a rare accomplishment, little one. Thou will learn it and _peut-être_ the piano also, and _peut-être_ the French tongue in all its perfection."
"And are the girls at Thérèse Marcelle's old young, or only young?" enquired Margot.
"Ah, _ma petite bébé_, they are one and all of the youngest and the gayest. See, I will take thee to-morrow. I am the last woman in the world to break my word."
Margot skipped away in her light and graceful manner and the next morning she and the Comtesse St. Juste drove into Arles in one of the very newest and best motor-cars of the time. They stopped before a large _magasin_, which looked to little Margot far more like a gorgeous shop than a school. There were chapeaux innumerable displayed in certain windows, there were all sorts of robes--robes of every sort and description also to be seen.
Madame entered smiling, holding the little hand of _la petite_. She was greeted by smiles from every one in the shop. In fact, her entrance seemed to bring a ray of sunshine with it. All the young women who were walking about and attending to different customers were trying to catch her eye in order to secure one of her much treasured smiles.
Madame la Comtesse, however, knew her own mind and, motioning to Margot to seat herself, entered into conversation of a very earnest and at the same time spirited nature with a young woman who sat behind a sort of raised counter. Margot was left to look around her. She was much, indeed greatly, puzzled by what she saw. What could have happened--what a very queer sort of school this was!
Presently a number of ladies came in and Margot forgot her own immediate interests in the excitement of watching them. They did not look like English ladies nor did they look like French. One of them was very large and very fat and red. She had a square figure planted on large square feet and a firm jaw indicating a tenacity of purpose, which the ill-natured might call pig-headedness. A young and very pretty French girl came up and spoke to her.