Dressed as she used to be in Petersburg society, it was still more noticeable how much plainer she had become.

Some unobtrusive touch had been added to Mademoiselle Bourienne's toilet which rendered her fresh and pretty face yet more attractive.

"What! Are you going to remain as you are, dear princess?" she began.

" They'll be announcing that the gentlemen are in the drawing room and we shall have to go down, and you have not smartened yourself up at all!" The little princess got up, rang for the maid, and hurriedly and merrily began to devise and carry out a plan of how Princess Mary should be dressed.