It was surmised, accordingly, that
he voyaged over the seas with a bevy of light-hearted nymphs; a
disreputable mode of conduct for a man of his advanced years, and all
the more aggravating to other people since, like a crafty and jealous
old sultan, he screened them from public view. Impropriety could be
overlooked--it could pass, where a millionaire was concerned, under the
heading of unconventionality; but such glaring selfishness might end in
being fatal to his reputation.
Confirmatory evidence of this scandalous state of affairs was obtained,
one sunny morning, in the most unexpected fashion. A fisherman named
Luigi, paddling about the stern of the FLUTTERBY where, in consequence
of the kitchen refuse thrown overboard, marine beasts of every shape
and kind were wont to congregate, cast down his spear at what looked
like a splendid caerulean flat-fish of uncommon size and brilliance.
The creature shivered and collapsed at that contact in the most
unnatural, unfishlike manner; and Luigi drew up, to his amazement, a
fragment of a lady's dress--to wit, a short length of sky-blue CREPE DE
CHINE.
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