PRISCILLA: And a Queen keeps cats for her amusement. They purr so delightfully when she pets them. JOHN: I never learned to purr; it must be amusing--for the Queen. PRISCILLA: Let me teach you. I'm starting a new class tonight. JOHN: I'm afraid I couldn't afford to pay the tuition. PRISCILLA: For a few exceptionally meritorious pupils, various scholarships and fellowships have been provided. JOHN: By whom? Old graduates? PRISCILLA: NO--the institution has been endowed by God-- JOHN: With exceptional beauty--I'm afraid I'm going to kiss you. NOW. (They kiss.) (Ten minutes pass.) PRISCILLA: Stop smiling in that inane way. JOHN: I just happened to think of something awfully funny. You know the reason why I came over here tonight? PRISCILLA: To see me. I wondered why you hadn't come months ago. JOHN: No. It's really awfully funny--but I came here tonight because Miles Standish made me promise this morning to ask you to marry him. Miles is an awfully good egg, really Priscilla. PRISCILLA: Speak for yourself, John. (They kiss.) PRISCILLA: Again. JOHN: Again--and again. Oh Lord, I'm gone. (An hour later JOHN leaves. As the door closes behind him PRISCILLA sinks back into her chair before the fireplace; an hour passes, and she does not move; her aunt returns from the Bradfords' and after a few ineffectual attempts at conversation goes to bed alone; the candles gutter, flicker, and die out; the room is filled of sacred silence. Once more the clock chimes forth the hour--the hour of fluted peace, of dead desire and epic love. Oh not for aye, Endymion, mayst thou unfold the purple panoply of priceless years. She sleeps--PRISCILLA sleeps--and down the palimpsest of age-old passion the lyres of night breathe forth their poignant praise. She sleeps--eternal Helen--in the moonlight of a thousand years; immortal symbol of immortal aeons, flower of the gods transplanted on a foreign shore, infinitely rare, infinitely erotic.[1]) [1] For the further adventures of Priscilla, see F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories in the "Girl With the Yellow Hair" series, notably "This Side of Paradise," "The Offshore Pirate," "The Ice Palace," "Head and Shoulders," "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," "Benediction" and "The Beautiful and Damned." CHAPTER FIVE THE SPIRIT OF '75 LETTERS OF A MINUTE MAN In the Manner of Ring Lardner Friend Ethen-- Well Ethen you will be surprised O. K. to hear I & the wife took a little trip down to Boston last wk. to a T. party & I guess you are thinking we will be getting the swelt hed over being ast to a T. party. In Boston. Well Ethen if you think that why you will be a 100 mi. offen the track because Ethen I and Prudence sent the kind that gets a swelt hed over being ast any wares like some of are naybers up here when they are ast any wares so you see Ethen even if we had been ast any wares we wouldnt of had no swelt hed. On acct of being ast any wares.