Excerpt from The Laughing Lady: A Comedy in Three Acts Mrs Hamilton Playgate's drawing-room in Mayfair. It is rather an imposing apartment, connected by folding-doors on the left with a small inner room; these doors are at the moment closed. You enter the room from the back, to the right; along the wall, still to the right, are heavily curtained windows, and against the wall a grand piano; beyond this, a large sofa, with armchairs, and at the back of that a writing-desk. Close to the desk, on a little table, is the inevitable telephone. The fireplace is to the left, flanked with another sofa, and an armchair or two. The room is gaily decorated in the most modern Bakstian manner; an amusing frieze of tripping figures runs round the walls; and on two panels, specially let in for that purpose, are ultra-modern paintings which may not be very comprehensible, but at least offer agreeable splashes of colour. Without being over-crowded, the room is very amply provided with chairs, small tables, stools, etc.; flowers abound, in vases, bowls and baskets. The atmosphere of the place is distinctly a pleasant one, of refinement and good taste. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.