When the fist collections are over Paris settles down to its individual customers or those recommended by them. A recommendation is essential unless the visitor is prepared to buy there on the spot, and even then the visitor is asked, "You are, then, from Mme. de Reynes? Is it Mme. Marcel or Mme. Etienne?" It is important io know becáuse Mme. Marcel de Reynes has one saleswoman while Mme. Etienne has another.
When the point is satisfactorily settled there is a piercing cry for Mme. Alice. There is a Mme. Alice in every dressmaking establishment Mme. Alice comes, smiling discreetly. She has secured a customer, but it is as pleasant for the customer as t is for to be her, sure. cus The tomer is asked what interests her.
Often she is not very precise, and then she is told what interests her. The dresses are passed. Some are merely brought in in the hand and held up against the saleswoman. There is much pinching and feeling of fne stuff. They may not have that same stuff in another colour. They will see. Stuffs are brought in. Often the saleswoman kneels, spreading the stuffs skilfully, saying with tainty how exquisite they are, suggesting little ifferentiations if, for instance, the model is a line without breadth and the client breadth without line, adding a cape if she does not wish to be too well aired and taking it off if she is of the sun-burned type. The fitting is arranged. Someone will be late—either the customer or the dressmaker. That is part of the business. Someone will be cross. That is also part of the business, since it provides all the more for the happy ending of the perfect dress.
At the moment Paris dressmakers are all on the move—some from the Rue de la Paix, which is hot and noisy now, to the discreet mansions of the Place Vendóme; some to the Rue clu Faubourg St. Honoré, where perhaps there are more ideas packed into a compact space than in any other street in Paris. And with the move comes a new scheme of decoration—navy blue, beige, and chromium perhaps: creamy-beige carpets, which, alas! show every mark, and brown madder chairs with elegant legs. Against the settings the dress shows proceed apace, with all the ceremonial which is theirs.
Weigh 5 eggs in their shells, and put ready the same weight of sugar, but of flour take the weight of three eggs only. Keep these three ingredients separate, Break the 5 eggs into a basin, and as you beat them make them a little warm over a pan of hot water. Beat the eggs thoroughly first by themselves, then add ihe sugar and a tablespoonful of lemon juice or orange fower water, and beat all together another quarter of an hour, Add the'grated rind of lemon, and lastly add the flour very gently as for a souffle, Mix lightly together and pour into sponge finger moulds, cover with sifted sugar and bake in a rather slow oven, The moulds must first be well buttered, and sprinkled with one spoonful of flour and two spoonfuls powdered sugar, thoroughly mixed together before using them. For this clarify the butter, pressing all the milk out, and first grease the moulds with the butter, then add the sugared flour,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.