Ashley Sterne

“ Round this catastrophe has been hatched a fiendish plot to hasten on my wedding with Gladys Paggs. Now, if there’s one thing a man ought not to be hurried over it is his wedding. It’s a very serious step he’s taking, and once taken he can’t undo it just as if it were a safety-pin or a home-made sock. ”

“ Gladys’s nose went red, then blue, then heliotrope. I sneezed seventeen times straight off the reel, and the man in front of me put up his umbrella.
“I think,” I said at last, “it will be quicker to go home and wait for the Park Lane mansion. Here we are catching quinsies and pneumonia, and malaria and calceolaria, when we might be sitting by the fire holding one another’s thumbs and masticating crumpets.”
“Never mind,” said Gladys. “Fancy, if we can one secure number five Acacia Gardens for our own! Won’t it be worth the waiting? ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 84 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”