A train three yards long
completed this gorgeous figure. She had commenced life a shrimp-girl, and
pushed a dredge before her, instead of pulling a silken besom after her.
Another stately queen (with an "a") heated the atmosphere with a burnous
of that color the French call _flamme d'enfer,_ and cooled it with a
green bonnet. A third appeared to have been struck with the beauty of a
painter's palette, and the skill with which its colors mix before the
brush spoils them. Green body, violet skirts, rose-colored trimmings,
purple sleeves, light green boots, lavender gloves. A shawl all gauze and
gold, flounced like a petticoat; a bonnet so small, and red feather so
enormous and all-predominant, that a peacock seemed to be sitting on a
hedge sparrow's nest.
Zoe suspected these polychromatic ladies at a glance, and observed their
manners, in a mistrustful spirit, carefully. She was little surprised,
though a good deal shocked, to find that some of them seemed familiar,
and almost jocular, with the croupiers; and that, although they did not
talk loud, being kept in order by the general etiquette, they rustled and
fidgeted and played in a devil-may-care sort of manner.
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