Later, as she grew older, she was admitted to their friendship and their confidence, but without ever sharing their pleasures.

She was too proud to go to see weddings at midday; and when she heard them talking of a ball at Vauxhall or the 'Delices du Marais,' or of a nice little supper at Bonvalet's or at the 'Quatre Sergents de la Rochelle,' she was always very disdainful.
We looked higher than that, did we not, little Chebe?
Moreover, her father called for her every evening.

Sometimes, however, about the New Year, she was obliged to work late with the others, in order to complete pressing orders.

In the gaslight those pale-faced Parisians, sorting pearls as white as themselves, of a dead, unwholesome whiteness, were a painful spectacle.

There was the same fictitious glitter, the same fragility of spurious jewels.