Page:The Steel Flea.djvu/88

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THE STEEL FLEA

pinned on, and on their arms are some sort of leglets or other. Their plush cloak is exactly like an ape—a sapajou."

The Englishmen burst out laughing and say: "Where's the objection in that?"

"There's no objection," replies the left-handed man, "only I'm afraid it would make me blush to watch and wait while she is getting herself out of all that."

"Is it possible," say they, "that your fashion is better?"

"Our fashion," he replies, "in Tula is simple: every woman wears a roundabout,[1] and even the greatest ladies wear our roundabouts."

They also showed him to their la-

  1. He probably means a garment like the sarafan, composed of many straight breadths gathered into a narrow band at the arm-pits, and suspended by straps over shoulders; or the ancient Russian gown, without gathers, cut with gores from neck to heel. What he manages to say is, that they wear lace gowns—or something approximating that.

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