“What?” she screamed.
I explained.
“How ridiculous!” she snapped. “Ladies don’t set up in shops.”
“But I always fancied you doubted my claim to that title,” I said.
”You had better put such a notion out of your mind at once.”
“We already have our premises.”
She was really disturbed. It was somewhat gratifying to realize how very much she hated losing me. But, of course, there was nothing personal about that. It was only because of my usefulness.
Her first thought when she realized that we were in earnest was: “But what am I going to do?”
Grand’mere had had to give notice to the Sallongers since she would no longer be working for them. This caused a great deal of consternation. She received a letter from one of the directors asking her if she had really considered what this meant. They had taken her for granted for so long. The very fact that her home was at The Silk House had made them absolutely sure of her services. She had clearly been of great use to them; and they tried to persuade her to think again.
But we were determined. Charles had made it impossible for us to stay; and we both knew that this was what we wanted. There was so much to remind me of Philip in The Silk House and the best thing possible was for rne to make a clean break.
Exciting times followed. There was settling into the new quarters with the rather small living rooms and the big workroom and salon. Cassie had wept and pleaded with her mother, but Lady Sallonger was adamant. Cassie must stay. If Grand’mere and I were going to be so ungrateful as to walk out after all she had done for us, at least her own daughter should not be permitted to do so.
So we had to say goodbye to a woebegone Cassie and to promise her mat whenever she wanted to come to us she would be welcome.
Grand’mere was like a young woman. “This was always a dream of mine,” she said. “I never thought I should be able to realize it.”
Looking back I see how naive we were. Grand’mere had made dresses in the past which had sold in Court circles; but they had had the Sallonger label attached to them. It was different without that name. She had wanted to call the shop Lenore’s. “It is yours,” she said. “It is for your future.” But Lenore’s was not Sallonger’s.
We had the dresses but business was slow in coming.
We had one servant—a thin little Cockney girl called Maisie. She was eager and helpful and very fond of Katie; she was willing to work hard, but we needed more help.
I think that within six months we had begun to realize that we had taken on something which we were too inexperienced to handle. Grand’mere tried to be bright and optimistic but I could see she was worried.
One day she said to me: “Lenore, I think we ought to look into our finances.”
I knew what she meant and I agreed.
We faced each other seriously. We had spent a great deal of the capital; and we were paying out more than we were taking in. “Perhaps,” I said, “we are pricing our dresses too low.”
“If we priced higher, should we sell?” asked Grand’mere. “We have to face it. Here we are in a fashionable part of London but we are not getting the high class clientele who used to buy the dresses I made. Perhaps we should try something simpler. …”
I could see that we had rushed into this without enough thought. Grand’mere could make the dresses but we needed an assistant. I had to look after Katie with Maisie’s help. We had taken on more than we were able to manage. There were so many aspects which we had not considered and most devastating of all was the contemplation of our fast-dwindling capital.
“We can’t go on until everything has been frittered away,” said Grand’mere.
“What do you think we should do?”
“We will not go back to The Silk House.”
“Never,” I said vehemently.
“Perhaps I could ask Sallongers if I could work here for them as I used to at The Silk House.”
”In these expensive premises.”
“Perhaps we could find a little house somewhere … perhaps with a small workroom.”
It was depressing and grew more so until one day we had a visitor … I went forward hoping for a customer and to my amazement saw the Countess of Ballader.
She embraced me warmly.
“It is good to see you,” I said.
She waved her hands. “All this …” she said. “I saw the name Lenore’s … and I’d heard through Julia that you’d gone off to work on your own. So this is it, eh?”
“Do come in. Grand’mere will be pleased to see you.”
They greeted each other effusively and I asked what the Countess was doing now.
“I have a beauty this time,” she explained. “Daughter of a multi-millionaire. She has everything … face, figure … money … but alas no blue blood. It’s my job to see that she gets it. I have an earl in mind but actually I’m looking for a duke.”
She talked for a while and told us how weary she was of the social round and this profession of hers.
Then she looked at us sharply. “Not going well, is it?” she said.
Grand’mere and I exchanged glances. “No,” I told her. “It is not.”
“I’m not surprised,” she said.
“But the clothes … they are just the same … just as good …”
“It’s not the quality, my dear, that sells them. It’s the aura. That’s what you lack. You’ll never make good this way, you know.”
I think we must have looked as frightened as we felt for she went on: “Oh, cheer up. It’s not the end of the world. All you have to do is go about it in the right way.”
“We feel just hopeless at selling.”
She looked round the place with something akin to distaste.
Then she said: “Listen. If you’re going to get on in the business world, you have to know people. They can’t make up their minds themselves. They have to be told. This is good. This is special. Tell them enough and in the right way and they’ll believe it. Your dresses were a success at Sallonger’s, weren’t they? Every girl going to Court had to have her Sallon Silk dress.”
“We have Sallon Silk here but nobody wants it. Grand’mere has made some beautiful dresses. They are still hanging here.”
The Countess looked at us benignly. “I think,” she said slowly, “that I can help you out of your troubles. Let me see what you have here.”
We took her round and she examined our stock with care. “I see,” she said. “Tomorrow I am bringing Debbie to see you.”
“Debbie?”
“My protegee. She is a charming creature. You will love her. She is one of my best ever. A little aristocratic blood and she would have been perfect. But you can’t have everything.”
“Do you think she would buy one of our dresses?”
She smiled at us. “I think that is very likely. Leave this to me. I think things are going to change. You have one or two here which would fit her. We will see what can be done.”
The next day, true to her promise, the Countess arrived with her protegee.
She was right. Debbie was beautiful. She had large greenish eyes with heavy dark lashes and dark brown curly hair; but it was her expression which was most appealing; there was a delightful innocence about her.
They arrived in a carriage with a resplendent coachman and a little page at the back to leap down and open doors.
The Countess could be very regal on occasions and this was one of them.
“This is Miss Deborah Mellor,” she said; “Deborah, Madame Lenore and Madame Cleremont.”
Deborah bowed her head charmingly.
“I have persuaded Madame Lenore to make your ball gown if she can fit it in.”
“That is very kind of you,” said Deborah.
”But first we are going to look round and see if there is some little thing we fancy.”