"_Please_ sit down! Now ... well, there's my hand, stupid, if you _will_ be silly. Now sit down here--so, with your head leaned back on this nice little cushion because it's good for your poor head--and I'll sit on this nice little footstool and be quite, quite honest. No, you must lean back--I don't care if you can't see me, I'd much rather you couldn't. Well, the truth is--no, you _must_ lean back--the truth is--I've loved you all my life, Billy Woods, and--no, not _yet_, Billy--and if you hadn't been the stupidest beautiful in the universe you'd have seen it long ago. You--you needn't--lean back--any longer, Billy ... Oh, Billy, why _didn't_ you shave?" "She _is_ skinny, isn't she, Billy?" "Now, Peggy, you mustn't abuse Kathleen. She's a friend of mine." "Well, I know she's a friend of yours, but that doesn't prevent her being skinny, does it?" "Now, Peggy--" "Please, Billy! _Please_ say she's skinny!" "Er--well, she's a bit thin, perhaps." "You angel!" "And you're quite sure you've forgiven me for doubting you?" "And you've forgiven _me?_" "Bless you, Peggy, I never doubted you! I've been too busy loving you." "It seems to me as if it had been--_always_." "Why, didn't we love one another in Carthage, Peggy?" "I think it was in Babylon, Billy." "And will love one another----?" "Forever and ever, dear. You've been to seek a wife, Billy boy." "And oh, the dimple in her chin..." * * * * * Ah, well! There was a deal of foolish prattle there in the firelight--delectable prattle, irresponsible as the chattering of birds after a storm. And I fancy that the Eagle's shadow is lifted from Selwoode, now that Love has taken up his abode there. THE END End of Project Gutenberg's The Eagle's Shadow, by James Branch Cabell