"Well, unmentionables, my dear—I thought I should have died with laughter."
"Sophonisba, my dear, tell us what the paper says about that magnificent shop under the Louvre colonnade; your father is forgetting himself."
"Dear mamma," said Sophonisba, "it would take me an hour to read all;" but she read the tit-bits.
"My dears," said Mrs. Cockayne to her daughters, "it would be positively a sin to miss such an opportunity."
Mr. Cockayne took up the paper which Sophonisba had finished reading, and running his eye over it, said, with a wicked curling of his lip—
"My dear Sophy, my dear child, here are a number of things you've not read."
Sophonisba tittered, and ejaculated—"Papa dear!"
"We have heard quite enough," Mrs. Cockayne said, sternly; "and we'll go to-morrow, directly after breakfast, and spend a nice morning looking over the things."
"But there are really two or three items, my dear, Sophy has forgotten. There are a lot of articles with lace and pen work; and think of it, my love, ten thousand ladies' chem——"
Mrs. Cockayne started to her feet, and shrieked—