The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five O'Clock Tea, by W. D. Howells

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Title: Five O'Clock Tea
Farce

Author: W. D. Howells

Release Date: January 5, 2009 [EBook #27709]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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| Transcriber's Note: |
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| On page 31, in the list of characters, Mrs. Campbell has |
| been changed to Mrs. Canfield. |
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FIVE O'CLOCK TEA

HARPER'S BLACK & WHITE SERIES

[Illustration: "'WILL YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION, AMY?'"]

FIVE O'CLOCK TEA

Farce

BY
W. D. HOWELLS

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
HARPER AND BROTHERS
1894

Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
Copyright, 1885, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
Copyright, 1885, by W. D. HOWELLS.

_All rights reserved._

ILLUSTRATIONS

"'WILL YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION, AMY?'" _Frontispiece_

"MRS. SOMERS, POURING A CUP OF TEA: 'THAT
MAKES IT A LITTLE MORE DIFFICULT'" _Facing page 32_

FIVE O'CLOCK TEA

I

_MRS. SOMERS; MR. WILLIS CAMPBELL_

Mrs. Amy Somers, in a lightly floating tea-gown of singularly becoming
texture and color, employs the last moments of expectance before the
arrival of her guests in marching up and down in front of the mirror
which fills the space between the long windows of her drawing-room,
looking over either shoulder for different effects of the drifting and
eddying train, and advancing upon her image with certain little bobs
and bows, and retreating from it with a variety of fan practice and
elaborated courtesies, finally degenerating into burlesque, and a
series of grimaces and "mouths" made at the responsive reflex. In the