Constance Richelieu, Dowager Comtesse de Placide, is noted entering the Recondite Atelier late in the evening in a swish of silk and perfume. The matron of the art-dealing Richelieus does not stay long, however, departing after a few minutes inside. It takes perhaps an hour for rumors to spread from the Comtesse's lips of the newly minted Maitresse Aguillard's low-bred manners and graceless company. It takes a few hours more before those coming and going from the Atelier are followed by derisive whispers and stares from the gentry. The Comtesse de Placide, for her part, is next seen mingling the Musée's own Maurice Gérin-Lajoie, himself freshly titled...