A businesswoman after all

[rareradiance]

Gabrielle has always given her work away for free here, when she's willing to part with it, but in the plot hole's absence there seems to be no sense in giving something for nothing. She takes a look through the fans strewn about her room, gathers them up, and brings them downstairs. This time when she sets up her table, she puts up a sign next to

Comments

[madame_tourvel]

*Madame de Tourvel has to stop and look when she catches sight of the fans. Admiringly,* Oh, these are beautiful.

[rareradiance]

"Thank you," says Gabrielle. "I thought a simpler, sweeter look most appropriate for summer."

One should never admit to a shortage of supplies in front of a customer. It implies you aren't doing good business, and that can lose you a sale no matter how good your work.

[madame_tourvel]

I quite agree. I think that all these new fans with all the gold and silver and such are rather gaudy. Fashion has been going quite too far of late, in my opinion. *Madame de Tourvel is from right before Gabrielle's era, as one can see*

[rareradiance]

Gabrielle's usual style is downright decadent, though elegant -- a defiance of her time. But she's as capable of pandering to her clientèle as any other businesswoman, and so she says, "Indeed. All it really makes for is a show of wealth, with no taste to temper it."

[madame_tourvel]

*And she's a good businesswoman, clearly.* Yes, taste's place should be to temper things, not to lead to ever greater extravagances.

[rareradiance]

"Precisely. You sound like a woman of taste yourself." She doesn't say it aloud, wary of appearing proud, but the implication is there -- It was obvious when you admired my fans.

[madame_tourvel]

*hears the implication and goes along with it* Well, I fear taste has never been my most praised trait, but I have enough of it to see the beauty in your work, Madmoiselle...

[rareradiance]

Gabrielle smiles. "If nothing else, you know how to make a friend of an artist -- though we're easily enough won over, with a compliment or two."

[madame_tourvel]

*light* Only genuine ones, I hope? Otherwise one would end up with a great deal of false friends.

[rareradiance]

"One certainly hopes. But if the flatterer is any sort of skilled liar at all, how is one to know?"

[madame_tourvel]

*reflectively* That is true.

[rareradiance]

She nods. "Nevertheless, I flatter myself I have knack for knowing who my friends are."

[madame_tourvel]

That's a very useful skill.

[rareradiance]

"And an important one, in the midst of a revolution," she says, keeping her tone light.

[madame_tourvel]

*she frowns, suddenly, as she took Gabrielle to be from her country and her time* A revolution? When was this?

[rareradiance]

"Seventeen eighty-nine. Things got a bit unpleasant."