"
Mrs. Phillips summoned Helga and another maid, who were just on the point
of going to bed, and directed their efforts toward the chintz chamber. "Ah,
well," thought M. Pelouse, "the _fiance_, then, is going to remain
over night in the house of his _fiancee_!" It was droll; yet there
were extenuating circumstances. But--such a singular climate, such curious
temperaments, such a general chill! And M. Pelouse was presently lost to
view among the welcome trappings of Louis Quinze.
22
_COPE SHALL BE RESCUED_
Next morning Cope left the house before breakfast. He had had the
forethought to plead an exceptionally early engagement, and thus he avoided
meeting, after the strain of the evening before, any of the various units
of the household. He and Lemoyne, draping their parti-colored pajamas over
the foot of the bedstead, left the chintz chamber at seven and walked out
into the new day. The air was cold and tingling; the ground was white as a
sheet; the sky was a strident, implacable blue. The glitter and the glare
assaulted their sleepy eyes. They turned up their collars, thrust their
hands deep into their pockets, and took briskly the half mile which led to
their own percolator and electric toaster.
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