Love in a Cloud: A Comedy in Filigree

"So you are sure I won't give Alice anything if she marries Jack, are you?" Miss Wentstile said. "Well, Alice, you are to marry Jack Neligage to save me from the gossips."

"It seems to me," Alice said, blushing very much, "that if I can't have any voice in the matter, Jack might be considered."

"Oh, my dear," returned Mrs. Neligage quickly, "do you suppose that if I made an alliance for Jack, he would be so undutiful as to object?"

Alice burst into a laugh, but Miss Wentstile, upon whom, in her ignorance of the engagement between Jack and May, the point was lost, let it pass unheeded.

"Well," she said, "I think I'll surprise you for once, Louisa. If Jack will stick faithfully to his place in the bank for a year, I'll give him and Alice the dot I promised the Count."

Mrs. Neligage got away from Miss Wentstile's as soon as possible, leaving Alice to settle things with her aunt, and taking a carriage at the next corner, drove to Jack's lodgings. She burst into his room tumultuously, fortunately finding him at home, and alone.

"Oh, Jack," she cried, "I didn't mean to, but I've engaged you again!"

He regarded her with a quizzical smile.

"Matchmaking seems to be a vice which develops with your age," he observed. "I got out of the other scrape easily enough, and I won't deny that it was rather good fun. I hope that this isn't any worse."

"But, Jack, dear, this time it's Alice!"

"Alice!" he exclaimed, jumping up quickly.

"Yes, it's Alice, and you ought to be grateful to me, for she's going to have a fortune, too."

With some incoherency, for she was less self-contained than usual, Mrs. Neligage told him what had happened.

"See what it is to have a mother devoted to your interests," she concluded. "You'd never have brought Miss Wentstile to terms. You ought to adore me for this."

"I do," he answered, laughing, but kissing her with genuine affection. "I hope you'll be as happy as Alice and I shall be."

"I only live for my child," returned she in gay mockery. "For your sake I'm going to be respectable for the rest of my life. What sacrifices we parents do make for our children!"

Late that evening Jack was taking his somewhat extended adieus of Alice.

"After all, Jack," she said, "the whole thing has come out of the novel. We'll have a gorgeously bound copy of 'Love in a Cloud' always on the table to remind us – "

"To remind us," he finished, taking the words out of her mouth with a laugh, "that our love has got out of the clouds."