The Laughing Girl: Original Text

By: Chambers, Robert W.

Our luncheon was a delicious surprise. It was served to us on a rustic table and upon a fresh white cloth, out by the fountain. We had a fragrant omelette, a cool light wine, some seductive bread and butter, a big wooden bowlful of mountain strawberries, a pitcher of cream, and a bit of dreamy cheese with our coffee. The old gods feasted no more luxuriously.Smith, fed to repletion, gazed sleepily but sentimentally at the vanishing skirts of my red-headed Hebe who had perpetrated this miracle in our behalf."Didn't I tell you she'd prove to be pretty under all that soot?" he said. "I like that girl. She's a peach."In point of fact her transfiguration had mildly amazed me. She had scrubbed herself and twisted up her hair, revealing an unsuspected whiteness of neck. She wore a spotless cotton dress and a white apron over it; the slouch of the slattern had disappeared and in its place was the rather indolent, unhurried, and supple grace of a lazy young thing who has never been obliged to hustle for a living."I wonder what her name is?" mused Smith. "She deserves a pretty name like Amaryllis--""Don't try to get gay and call her that," said I, setting fire to a cigarette. "Mind your business, anyway.""But we ought to know what she calls herself. Suppose we wanted her in a hurry? Suppose the house caught fire! Suppose she fell into the fountain! Shall I go to the pantry and ask her what her name is? It will save you the trouble," he added, rising.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0915LCLST
• ISBN13: 9798727706718
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"