This crowning of the edifice of her ambition
filled her with solemn awe; the preparations for the coming ball were
stupendous, her own magnificent costume seemed made up of diamonds and
bullion and five-pound notes.
Long before the hour of reception she might have been seen pacing to
and fro with stately splendour, contemplating the dais erected for
royalty at one end of the room, and thinking with a glow of
satisfaction that the representative of the Purlings had at last come
to her own. At this supreme moment she was grateful to dear Phillipa
and to Gilbert little less dear.
Then guests began to pour in. Where was Phillipa? Very late; she might
have dressed earlier. A servant was sent to call her, and Phillipa,
hurrying down, met Gilly on the upper floor coming out of Mrs.
Purling's bedroom.
"What have you been doing there?" she asked.
"Mrs. Purling wanted a fan," said Gilly readily.
She might want one fan, but hardly two; and had Phillipa been less
flurried she might have noticed that Mrs. Purling had one already in
her hand. But then their Royal Highnesses arrived; the heiress made
her curtsey for the first time in her life, was graciously received,
and the hour of her apotheosis had actually come. Presently the crowd
became so dense that every inch of space was covered; people
overflowed on to the landings, and sat four or five deep upon the
stairs.
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