Next morning our boxes were still detained at the



43 XCbe IRomance of Isabel Xab? Sutton

custom-house, and my brothers and sisters and myself
got some bad tea and some good bread-and-butter, and
sat round in a circle on the floor in our night-gowns,
with our food in the middle. Shortly after we heard
a hooting, laughing, and wrangling in a shrill key,
" Coralie, Rosalie, Florantine, Celestine, Euphrosine ! "
so I pricked up my ears in the hopes of seeing some
of those pretty, well-dressed, piquante little soubrettes
of whom we had heard mother talk, when in rolled
about a dozen harpies with our luggage. At first I
did not feel sure whether they were men or women ;
they had picturesque female dresses on, but their
manners, voices, language, and gestures were those of
the lowest costermongers. They spoke to me in
fatoisj which I did not understand, and seemed sur-
prised to see us all in our nightgowns, forgetting that
we had little else to put on t'dl they had brought
the luggage. I gave them half a crown, which they
appeared to think a great deal of money, and it in-
spirited them greatly. They danced about me, whirled
me round, and in five minutes one had decked me up
in a red petticoat, another arrayed me in her jacket,
and a third clapped her dirty cap on my head, and
I was completely attired i la marine. I felt so amused
by the novelty of the thing that I forgot to be
angry at their impertinence, and laughed as heartily
as they did.
