The Girl from Hong-Kong: A Story of Adventure Under Five Suns — page 278: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

272. _ THE GIRL FROM HONG-KONG. 7 i i * Music and langhter fill the air. The great barracks appears to be thronged with one of the. most fashionable crowds seen in ‘Paria ‘for years, almost every dame and mams’lle of note being present, : either in charge ofa booth or among the surging throng : of lookers-on. - Inside the atmosphere i is ‘exceedingly warm. oo - .From the day | of the great” gathering that witnessed the marriage of the first Napoleon with the chosen successor of Josephine, Paris has probably. seen no more royal congregation of ‘wealth and beauty than the ona which graces the Charity Bazaar on this afternoon in May, 1897. Alas! that the parallel should be carried even further—who could dream it? To look around the spacious “hall, “gece with banners and streamers that covered the ‘bare wooden framework, one is reminded of fairyland. ‘Every one seems vivacious and happy. There is not the faintest shadow of portending evil. Who could dream of such a thing with a thousand of the loveliest women under the. lilies of la belle France around him? | - The crowd surges this way and that. White-robed fairy messengers dart in ‘and out from booth to booth. Already the sales have started i in, and the prospect of eclipsing other vears aiiimates the hearts of the Duchess comichbooks.com