When Bessie saw the bazaar she was as full of admiration of it as even Madge and Letty could desire, especially of the big tailor's. There was a brilliant show of figures, from the little wax boy in imaginary English sailor costume, to a moustached gentleman elaborately got up in evening suit, white tie and all.
"Oh, how funny they are!" Bessie exclaimed. "But I don't see the one in the red coat."
"He's not there to-day," said Madge. "Perhaps we'll see him again to-morrow, in something different."
"It must be great fun dressing, and undressing them," said Bessie. "Do they change them nearly every day?"
"Oh no, not so often as that. But we watch them always, to see."
But for the next two or three days there was no change. Bessie looked in vain for the red-coated one she was so curious to see.
Now I must tell you that there was sometimes a regiment, or part of a regiment, at Sablons. They came for rifle-practice on the sands; and there was always a great excitement when a new detachment came in. And a few days after Bessie and Hugh made their appearance, the town was awakened early one morning by the tramp of a number of red-coats, who had marched over from an inland town, where there were large barracks. Next day on their way home, as usual, from their morning bath, the little girls passed through the arcade. Madge and Letty did not give the dummies more than a passing glance, till suddenly they noticed that Bessie had stayed behind.
"There she is," said Letty; "she's staring at the figures. Why—is that—?" and she hesitated.
There she was, sure enough—Bessie, that is to say—standing in front of a tall figure, a red-coated one in all the glory of a scarlet uniform, and with several medals on the right breast, which the little girl on her tip-toes was reaching up to and examining, one after another, with great interest. Letty and Madge drew near and looked at her with a curious misgiving. She glanced round.