"What have
I to do to-day?" she asked.
Assunta meditated. "Eh, it 's a very busy day! Fortunately I have a
better memory than the signorina," she said, turning to Rowland. She
began to count on her fingers. "We have to go to the Pie di Marmo to see
about those laces that were sent to be washed. You said also that you
wished to say three sharp words to the Buonvicini about your pink dress.
You want some moss-rosebuds for to-night, and you won't get them for
nothing! You dine at the Austrian Embassy, and that Frenchman is to
powder your hair. You 're to come home in time to receive, for the
signora gives a dance. And so away, away till morning!"
"Ah, yes, the moss-roses!" Christina murmured, caressingly. "I must have
a quantity--at least a hundred. Nothing but buds, eh? You must sew them
in a kind of immense apron, down the front of my dress. Packed tight
together, eh? It will be delightfully barbarous. And then twenty more or
so for my hair. They go very well with powder; don't you think so?" And
she turned to Rowland. "I am going en Pompadour."
"Going where?"
"To the Spanish Embassy, or whatever it is.
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