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 crepon, with a yoke of lace and a
stylishly contrasting stock of satin ribbon?"

"It would depend upon how you finished the sleeves," remarked Madame
Recamier. "If you had a few puffs of rich brocaded satin set in with
deeply folded pleats it wouldn't be bad."

"I think it would be very effective," observed Mrs. Noah, "but a
trifle too light for general wear. I should want some kind of a wrap
with it."

"It does need that," assented Elizabeth. "A wrap made of
passementerie and jet, with a mousseline de soie ruche about the neck
held by a chou, would make it fascinating."

"The committee on treachery is ready to report," said Delilah, rising
from her corner, where she and Lucretia Borgia had been having so
animated a discussion that they had failed to observe the others
crowding about Cleopatra and the papers.

"A little sombre," said Cleopatra. "The corsage is effective, but I
don't like those basque terminations. I've never approved of those
full godets--"

"The committee on treachery," remarked Delilah again, raising her