CHAPTER III

HELEN DE VALLORBES APPREHENDS VEXATIOUS COMPLICATIONS Four gowns lay outspread upon the indigo-purple, embroidered coverlet of the bed. The afterglow of an orange and crimson sunset touched the folds of them, ranged upward to the vaultings of the frescoed ceiling, and stained the lofty walls as with the glare of a furnace. Sea-greens, sea-blues, died in the heat of it, abashed and vanquished. But so did not Madame de Vallorbes' white lawn and lace _peignoir_, or her abundant hair, which Zelie Forestier--trim of fig…