Russian at Heart by Olga Hawkes & John Hawkes

Author:Olga Hawkes & John Hawkes [Hawkes, Olga & Hawkes, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Olga Rossi Publications
Published: 2013-08-22T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY

Early in the New Year Sonechka did her first modelling job for Lara. She wore several day frocks, suits and evening dresses for Francoise Dupont, who came to the salon with her mother. Francoise needed a trousseau for her September wedding in Paris. They were shown swatches of material and Francoise was measured for a toile. Sonechka was relieved that Lara liked the way she modelled her garments.

Since the mother of the bride and Francoise disagreed on what items to buy, they decided to return the next week. Francoise’s lack of interest in her appearance baffled both Sonechka and Lara. Her elegant mother, a good client of Lara’s, paid great attention to appearance. Lara had no doubt that, if it were not that she needed a trousseau, Francoise would never have come. She was marrying a distant cousin, a banker and they would live in Paris.

Francoise longed to be a scientist like Madame Curie, not the chic Parisian her mother wished her to be. Despite Francoise’s rather large Gallic nose, Sonechka thought that with Lara’s careful grooming and the correct wardrobe Francoise could be as elegant as her mother.

Since Francoise seemed to be so unenthusiastic about her forthcoming marriage, Sonechka wondered why she had become engaged. ‘That’s a good point,’ Lara quipped. ‘It baffled me too. Then I discovered that Francoise’s fiancé, like the Duponts, comes from one of France’s oldest Protestant banking families. So, the respective families decided the couple would make a suitable match. They met last year when the Duponts returned to France. Monsieur Dupont is head of the Shanghai branch of a French bank. They lost a great deal of money when the Bolsheviks closed down the Russian stock exchange and seized all foreign owned businesses without compensation. Her fiancé’s family had not invested in Russia and remains very wealthy. That’s reason enough for Francoise’s parents wanting the couple to marry.’

It intrigued my mother that the republican French still arranged marriages. She understood they were a relic of such ‘backward’ countries as her Imperial Russia. When Francoise next returned to the salon, Sonechka hardly recognised her. Antoine had stylishly bobbed her limpid locks and her hands were beautifully manicured. She wore a faint touch of lipstick. It reminded Sonechka of her own transformation from a dowdy duckling to an elegant swan only a few months earlier.

Francoise ordered a number of the outfits which Sonechka had modelled. Francoise had very definite ideas about the design of the wedding dress. She was delighted when Lara found a wedding dress material similar to the family’s treasured heirloom, a Chantilly lace wedding veil.

The skill and patience that Mary demonstrated in making Francoise’s wedding dress impressed Sonechka. Admiring Mary’s masterpiece, Sonechka said she hoped one day to marry in a similar gorgeous creation. Mary said that she did not believe she would ever get married. As a Eurasian neither the white nor the Chinese men wanted her as a wife; they were equally despised by the Europeans and Chinese. She

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.