Monday, December 23, 2019

Too much happiness

     But before he could reach the door it opened, and he saw that Chippendale, the human homing pigeon, had returned. He received chilly glances from both Jerry and Crispin. There are times when a nephew and uncle with a great deal on their minds are glad of the addition to their deliberations of a weedy little man who looks like a barnyard fowl, but this was not one of them.
     What particularly irked them was the fact that this foul-impersonator was so plainly in the best of spirits, looking indeed as if he had just bought the world and paid cash down for it. That was what in their despondent mood they found so hard to bear. A melancholy Chippendale they could have endured; to a Chippendale in tears they might have extended a cordial welcome; but a Chippendale grinning all over his face in the manner popularized by Cheshire cats affected them like a knife stab in the breast.

(from The Girl In Blue, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

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