were alone, and chattered like
magpies, but at that station a couple got in. The man, an old peasant,
dressed in a blue blouse with a folding collar, wide sleeves, tight at
the wrist, and ornamented with white embroidery, wore an old high hat
with long nap, held an enormous green umbrella in one hand, and a large
basket in the other, from which the heads of three frightened ducks
protruded. The woman, who sat stiffly in her rustic finery, had a face
like a fowl, and with a nose that was as pointed as a bill. She sat down
opposite her husband and did not stir, as she was startled at finding
herself in such smart company.

There was certainly an array of striking colors in the carriage.
_Madame_ was dressed in blue silk from head to foot, and had on over her
dress a dazzling red shawl of imitation French cashmere. Fernande was
panting in a Scottish plaid dress, whose bodice, which her companions
had laced as tight as they could, had forced up her falling bosom into a
double dome, that was continually heaving up and down, and which seemed
liquid beneath the material. Raphaele, with a bonnet covered with
feathers, so that it looked like a nest full of birds, had on a lilac
dress with gold spots on it, and there was something Oriental about it
that suited her Jewish face. Rosa, _the Jade_, had on a pink petticoat
with large flounces, and looked like a very fat child, an obese dwarf;
while the two pumps looked as if they had cut their dresses out of old,
flowered curtains, dating from the Restoration.

As soon as they were no longer alone in the compartment, the ladies put
on staid looks, and began to talk of subjects which might give the
others a high opinion of them. But at Bolbec a gentleman with light
whiskers, with a gold chain, and wearing two or three rings, got in, and
put several parcels wrapped in oil cloth into the net over his head. He
looked inclined for a joke, and a good-natured fellow.

"Are you ladies changing your quarters?" he said, and that question
embarrassed them all considerably. _Madame_, however, quickly recovered
her composure, and said sharply, to avenge the honor of her corps:

"I think you might try and be polite!"

He excused himself, and said: "I beg your pardon, I ought to have said
your nunnery."

As _Madame_ could not think of a retort, or perhaps as she thought
herself justified sufficiently, she gave him a dignified bow, and
pinched in her lips.

Then the gentleman, who was sittin