Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Islands -- Fiction; Love stories; Nobility -- Fiction
"Deppy? Oh, my dear," and she laughed gaily once more. "Deppy doesn't
mind. He rather likes me to be nice to other men. That is, if they are
nice men. Indeed, I don't forget Deppy! I shall remember him to my dying
day."
"Your point of view is quite different from that of a Boston wife, I'd
suggest."
"Certainly. We English have a colonial policy. We've spread out, my
dear."
"You are frivolous once more, Agnes."
"Genevra," said Lady Agnes solemnly, "if you'd been on a barren island
for five months as I have, with nothing to look at but your husband and
the sunsets, you would not be so hard on me. I wouldn't take Drusilla's
husband away from her for the world; I wouldn't even look at him if he
were not on the barren island, too. I've read novels in which a man and
woman have been wrecked on a desert island and lived there for months,
even years, in an atmosphere of righteousness. My dear, those novelists
are ninnies. Nobody could be so good as all that without getting wings.
And if they got wings they'd soon fly away from each other. Angels are
the only creatures who can be quite circumspect, and they're not real,
after all, don't you know. Drusilla may not know it yet, but she's not
an angel, by any means; she's real and doesn't know it, that's all. I am
real and know it only too well. That's the difference. Now, come along.
Let's have a walk. I'm tired of men and angels. That's why I want you
for awhile. You've got no wings, Genevra; but it's of no consequence, as
you have no one to fly away from."
"Or to, you might add," laughed Genevra.
"That's very American. You've been talking to Miss Pelham. She's always
adding things. By the way, Mr. Chase sees quite a lot of her. She types
for him. I fancy she's trying to choose between him and Mr. Saunders. If
you were she, dear, which would you choose?"
"Mr. Saunders," said Genevra promptly. "But if I were myself, I'd choose
Mr. Chase."
"Speaking of angels, he must have wings a yard long. He has been chosen
by an entire harem and he flies from them as if pursued by the devil. I
imagine, however, that he'd be rather dangerous if his wings were to get
out of order unexpectedly. But he's nice, isn't he?"
The Princess nodded her head tolerantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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