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"That’s right, so I’m useless Go ahead and rub it in, why don’t you?" said Xeet used to not even being able to turn the pages of a book"
There was a knock at my door, and Caroline looked into the roo collected in an hour’s tiroaned "Charlotte as well?"
"Yes, that’s what Aunt Glenda said They’re i her coach people with no talent at all Or sory," I said
"We’ll be right down," said Lesley, digging , Gwenny You canin self-pity later Right now you need so to eat!"
I sat up and blew h to listen to Aunt Glenda’s nasty reot started on the code!"
"I’ll keep working on it, don’t worry Meanwhile, you’re going to need strong nerves in the immediate future" Lesley pulled ood practice for when the going gets tough If you survive lunch, you can get through that soirée, no problem"
"And if not, you can always commit hara-kiri," said Xemerius
MADAME ROSSINI clasped me to her ample bosom when I arrived "My leetle swan-necked beauty, ’ere you are at last I ’ave missed you"
"I’ve missed you, too," I said, and I meant it Thekindness and her wonderful French accent (leetle swan-necked beauty! If only Gideon could hear that!), was invigorating and reassuring at the same time She was balm to my wounded self-esteem
"You will be enchantée when you see what I ’ave made for you Monsieur Giordano, ’e almost hen ’e saw your clothes, zey are so beautiful"
"I believe you," I said Giordano would have been weeping because he couldn’t wear the clothes himself Still, he’d been reasonably friendly today, not least because I did rather ith the dancing this ti proreat lords of the tis (Xemerius had simply looked over Charlotte’s shoulder from behind and read her list) Also thanks to Xemerius, I ord-perfect inall the first naood with a fan, but Charlotte had estion that I didn’t need to carry one at all
At the end of the lesson, Giordano had handed me another list full of words that I mustn’t under any circumstances use "Learn those by heart for tomorrow," he had said in his nasal voice "Rehteenth century, no news anchor is super, wicked, or cool, they knew nothing about splitting the atoen skin creaht it? I tried to ihteenth-century soirée, I’d want to come out with a sentence about anchoren skin creams However, I politely said, "Okay," which had Giordano screeching, "Nooo! Not okay There was no okay in the eighteenth century, you stupid girl"
Madaain I was surprised to find how co so like that She strapped a padded wire frahteenth centurybums and broad hips), and then put a dark red dress overrow of little hooks and buttons behindit Wow, it was so a!
Madame Rossini walked slowly aroundMagnifique"
"Is this the ball dress?" I asked
"No, it is ze gown for ze soirée" Madame Rossini pinned tiny, perfectly fore As her h her teeth "Zere, you can wear your ’air unpowdered, and ze dark color will look fantastic with ze red Just as I thought!" She winked at me mischievously "You will attract attention, h zat is not ze idea, but what can I do?" She wrung her hands, but unlike Giordano when he ringing his, dumpy little Madame Rossini looked cute "You are a leetle beauty, zere is no denying it, putting you in neutral colors would not ’elp Zere we are, little swan neck, and now for ze ball dress"
The ball dress was pale blue with cream embroidery and frills, and it fitted as perfectly as the red dress It had, if possible, an evenneckline than the red dress, and the skirt swung around hed upworried "I a is not comfortable, not with all that ’air of your own ’idden underneath But your ’air is so dark, with powder it will probably be a ’ideous gray Quelle catastrophe!" She frowned "Never rave; la mode--but dear ’eaven, what a ’orrible mode!"
For the first ti ’Ideous! ’Orrible! Oh, how right she was It wasn’t just the fashionable hair powder, Gideon was ’ideous and ’orrible as well, so far as I was concerned, and fro to look at him that way, so there!
Madaood she was for nant about the eighteenth century "Boys, girls, ’aving to powder their ’air to look like their grandrave;res--’orrible Now try on zese shoes You et zem altered"