The Lords don't come jumping." Joan Whitworth carried on too, in her sackcloth and sashes.

She was moved by the enthusiastic explosions of Miranda Brown to reveal some details of the great novel which was then in the process of incubation.
"_She_ insists on being married in a violet dress," said Joan, "with the organ playing the 'Funeral March of a Marionette.'" "Oh, isn't that thrilling!" cried Miranda.
"But why does she insist upon these unusual arrangements ?" asked Harold Jupp.
Joan brushed his question aside.
"It was symbolical of her." "Yes.

Linda would have done that," said Miranda.

"I suppose her marriage turns out very unhappily ?" "It had to," said Joan, quite despondent over this unalterable necessity.
"Now, why ?" asked Jupp in a perplexity.
"Her husband never understood her." "What ho!" cried Dennis Brown, looking up from his scientific researches into "Form at a Glance." "I expect that he talked racing all day," said Miranda.
Dennis Brown treated the rejoinder with contempt.

His eyes were fixed sympathetically on the young writer-to-be.
"I hate crabbing any serious effort to elevate us, Joan, but, honestly, doesn't it all sound a little conventional ?" He could have used no epithet more deplorable.