Manchurian Books

Inelegantly do I say? you
should have seen the sweet imp as I remember her. Just her poise on the
wall comes suddenly clear before me, and behind her the light various
branches of the bushes of the shrubbery that my feet might not profane,
and far away and high behind her, dim and stately, the cornice of the
great facade of Bladesover rose against the dappled sky. Our talk must
have been serious and business-like, for we were discussing my social
position.
"I don't love Archie," she had said, apropos of nothing; and then in a
whisper, leaning forward with the hair about her face, "I love YOU!"
But she had been a little pressing to have it clear that I was not and
could not be a servant.
"You'll never be a servant--ever!"
I swore that very readily, and it is a vow I have kept by nature.
"What will you be?" said she.
I ran my mind hastily over the professions.
"Will you be a soldier?" she asked.
"And be bawled at by duffers? No fear!" said I. "Leave that to the
plough-boys."
"But an officer?"
"I don't know," I said, evading a shameful difficulty.


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