having untied the bundle, she held one of the open papers up before her,
"how interesting! All the latest Paris fashions. Humph! Look at those
sleeves, Elizabeth. What an impregnable fortress you would have been with
those sleeves added to your ruffs!"

"I should think they'd be very becoming," put in Cassandra, standing on
her tiptoes and looking over Cleopatra's shoulder. "That Watteau isn't
bad, either, is it, now?"

"No," remarked Calpurnia. "I wonder how a Watteau back like that would go
on my blue alpaca?"

"Very nicely," said Elizabeth. "How many gores has it?"

"Five," observed Calpurnia. "One more than Cæsar's toga. We had to have
our costumes distinct in some way."

"A remarkable hat, that," nodded Mrs. Lot, her eye catching sight of a
Virot creation at the top of the page.

"Reminds me of Eve's description of an autumn scene in the garden," smiled
Mrs. Noah. "Gorgeous in its foliage, beautiful thing; though I shouldn't
have dared wear one in the Ark, with all those hungry animals browsing
about the upper and lower decks."

"I wonder," remarked Cleopatra, as she cocked her head to one side to take
in the full effect of an attractive summer gown--"I wonder how that waist
would make up in blue crépon, with a yoke of lace and a stylishly
contrasting stock of satin ribbon?"