Collins had put her to work immediately, stationing Lissa at a position near the ladies’ withdrawing room. The trusted servant who regularly assumed this position had taken ill and the other servants were needed elsewhere. Mrs. Collins had also confided, in an undertone that none of her staff could hear, that Lady Beckworth, herself, had suggested Melissa for this sensitive duty. Lissa was in charge of assisting the ladies in repairing their toilettes and taking charge of their outer garments. The position in which she found herself was much to Melissa’s liking. Her vantage point enabled her to view the guests as they arrived in all their finery and afforded her the opportunity to see with her own eyes precisely which styles were in the first stare of fashion. Melissa had been rushing to and fro for the better part of an hour when her stepmother and her stepsisters arrived. Regina was wearing her new cloak and Melissa thought it suited her very well indeed. It was made of a particularly beautiful embroidered silk and Jane had purchased it for her eldest daughter at the shop of the fashionable modiste they had patronized earlier in the day.
