MADAME PEPITA: I have troubles of my own. Believe me! A dressmaker invests her entire capital in clothes. These gowns cost me a fortune, and just as soon as the style changes, nobody will look at them. Then, I have to pay wages to no end of girls, and, finally, there are the customers. They grow meaner and meaner every day. Even the actresses and the demi-mondaines, who only a little while ago never dreamed of questioning the price of anything, would you believe it--nowadays the way they scrutinize their bills is something shameful. They know what everything, down to a yard of satin, costs. Why, Conde, I had a lady here the other day, the wife of a cabinet minister--I'd rather not mention her name--who insisted upon supplying her own trimming for a court costume. Fancy! Trimming! To me! What next, I wonder? She said the lace was antique, it had a history. I thought to myself, it's antique all right.