More: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/loveincloudcomed00bate LOVE IN A CLOUD A Comedy in Filigree by ARLO BATES Boston and New York Houghton, Mifflin and Company The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1900 Copyright, 1900, by Arlo Bates All Rights Reserved TO MRS. E. L. HOMANS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE MISCHIEF OF A MAID 1 II. THE MADNESS OF A MAN 11 III. THE BABBLE OF A TEA 19 IV. THE TICKLING OF AN AUTHOR 29 V. THE BLAZING OF RANK 43 VI. THE MISCHIEF OF A WIDOW 50 VII. THE COUNSEL OF A MOTHER 60 VIII. THE TEST OF LOVE 69 IX. THE MISCHIEF OF A GENTLEMAN 79 X. THE BUSINESS OF A CLUBMAN 89 XI. THE GAME OF CROSS-PURPOSES 98 XII. THE WASTING OF REQUESTS 108 XIII. THE WILE OF A WOMAN 119 XIV. THE CONCEALING OF SECRETS 130 XV. THE MISCHIEF OF A LETTER 138 XVI. THE DUTY OF A SON 150 XVII. THE BUSINESS OF A LOVER 166 XVIII. THE MISCHIEF OF MEN 180 XIX. THE CRUELTY OF LOVE 191 XX. THE FAITHFULNESS OF A FRIEND 198 XXI. THE MISCHIEF OF A FIANCÉ 206 XXII. THE COOING OF TURTLE-DOVES 220 XXIII. THE BUSINESS OF A MUSE 227 XXIV. THE MISCHIEF OF A CAD 241 XXV. THE WAKING OF A SPINSTER 254 XXVI. THE WOOING OF A WIDOW 266 XXVII. THE CLIMAX OF COMEDY 277 XXVIII. THE UNCLOUDING OF LOVE 288 LOVE IN A CLOUD 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."