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Love in a Cloud: A Comedy in Filigree
Love in a Cloud: A Comedy in Filigree
I
THE MISCHIEF OF A MAID
"No, my dear May, I positively will not hear another word about 'Love in a Cloud.' I am tired to death of the very sound of its stupid name."
"Oh, Mrs. Harbinger," May Calthorpe responded, eagerly defensive, "it isn't a stupid name."
Mrs. Harbinger settled herself back into the pile of gay cushions in the corner of the sofa, and went on without heeding the interruption: —
"I have heard nothing but 'Love in a Cloud,' 'Love in a Cloud,' until it gives me a feeling of nausea. Nobody talks of anything else."
May nodded her head triumphantly, a bright sparkle in her brown eyes.
"That only shows what a perfectly lovely book it is," she declared.
Mrs. Harbinger laughed, and bent forward to arrange a ribbon at May's throat.
"I don't care if it is the loveliest book ever written," she responded; "I won't have it stuffed down my throat morning, noon, and night. Why, if you'll believe it, my husband, who never reads novels, not only read it, but actually kept awake over it, and after that feat he'll talk of it for months."
Pretty May Calthorpe leaned forward with more animation than the mere discussion of an anonymous novel seemed to call for, and caught one of her hostess's hands in both her own.
"Oh, did Mr. Harbinger like it?" she asked. "I am so interested to know what he thinks of it."