nt in lieu of rational food; so I sustained myself on a
cup of coffee, and saw Frank also make tolerable play of knife and fork,
though he did take some blanc-mange with his cold chicken, and profusely
peppered his Charlotte-Russe!

Mrs. Bowen alternately wept and ate pie. Mr. Bowen said the jelly tasted
of turpentine, and the chickens must have gone on Noah's voyage, they
were so tough; he growled at the ale, and asked nine questions about the
coffee, all of a derogatory sort, and never once looked at Josephine,
who looked at him every time he was particularly cross, with a rosy
little smile, as if she knew why! The few other people present behaved
after the ordinary fashion; and when we had finished, Frank and
Josephine, Mr. and Mrs. Bowen, Laura Lane and I, all took the train for
Dartford. Laura was to stay two weeks, and I till the regiment left.

An odd time I had, after we were fairly settled in our quiet hotel, with
those two girls. Laura was sentimental, sensitive, rather high-flown,
very shy, and self-conscious; it was not in her to understand Josey at
all. We had a great deal of shopping to do, as our little bride had put
off buying most of her finery till this time, on account of the few
weeks between the fixing of her marriage-day and its arrival. It was
pretty enough to see the _naive_ vanity with which she selected her
dresses and shawls and laces,--the quite inconsiderate way in which she
spent her money on whatever she wanted. One day we were in a dry-goods'
shop, looking at silks; among them lay one of Marie-Louise blue,--a
plain silk, rich from its heavy texture only, soft, thick, and perfect
in color.

"I will have that one," said Josephine, after she had eyed it a moment,
with her head on one side, like a canary-bird. "How much is it?"

"Two fifty a yard, Miss," said the spruce clerk, with an inaccessible
air.

"I shall look so nice in it!" Josey murmured. "Sue, will seventeen yards
do? it must be very full and long; I can't wear flounces."

"Yes, that's plenty," said I, scarce able to keep down a smile at
Laura's face.

She would as soon have smoked a cigar on the steps of the hotel as have
mentioned before anybody, much less a supercilious clerk, that she
should "look so nice" in anything. Josey never thought of anything
beyond the fact, which was only a fact. So, after getting another dress
of a lavender tint, still self-colored, but corded and rich, because it
went well with her complexio