stair-loungers

Updated: July 4, 2025

A little desultory conversation goes on among these stair-loungers, conversation mingled with much dreary yawning, a trained opera-singer is shaking forth chromatic roulades and trills in the great drawing-room above, there is an incessant stream of people coming and going, there is the rustle of silk and satin, perfume, shaken out of lace kerchiefs, and bouquets oppresses the warm air, the heat is excessive, and there is a never-ending monotonous hum of voices, only broken at rare intervals by the "society laugh" that unmeaning giggle on the part of the women, that strained "ha, ha, ha!" on the part of the men, which is but the faint ghostly echo of the farewell voice of true mirth.

Marie Corelli - Thelma