Page:The fortunes of Fifi (IA fortunesoffifi00seawiala).pdf/150

 *sessed. This suited Fifi exactly. Louis Bourcet was as finically particular about colors as he was about behavior, and both he and Madame Bourcet were privately determined that Fifi should go through life in brown gowns with dark green spots, like the one which had so excited her disgust in the first instance. Knowing this, Fifi concluded to administer a series of shocks in every one of her purchases, and went about to do this with a vim and thoroughness characteristic of her.

The first gown they showed her nearly made her scream with delight. It was almost enough to make Louis Bourcet break their engagement at sight. It was a costume of a staring yellow brocade, with large purple flowers on it, and was obviously intended for a woman nine feet high and three feet broad—and Fifi was but a slender twig of a girl. One huge flower covered her back, and another her chest, while three or four went around the vast skirt which trailed a yard behind. The manager put it on Fifi, while her assistants and fellow conspirators joined with her in declaring that the gown was ravishing on Fifi, which it was in a way.

Fifi paraded solemnly up and down before the