All these suggestions,
however, are eventually put aside in favour of the advice that a
shop should be started, a _nom de commerce_ adopted, and a circle of
friendly customers be acquired by discreet advertisement. After these
matters have been decided, but not till then, it becomes necessary
to determine to what special branch the talents of the prospective
Shopkeeper are to be devoted. At last even this is accomplished,
and in a few months more the world of fashion may learn by private
circular or public paragraph, that a new competitor for its favours
has been launched into commercial activity under a sweetly symbolical
name.
After this everything depends upon the Lady herself. At first
everything will go swimmingly. Friends will rally round her, and she
may perhaps discover with a touching surprise that the staunchest and
truest are those of whom, in her days of brilliant prosperity, she
thought the least. But a _succes d'estime_ is soon exhausted. Unless
she conducts her business on purely business lines, delivers her
goods when they are wanted, and, for her own protection, sends in her
accounts as they fall due, and looks carefully after their payment,
her customers and her profits will fall away.
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