Man and Maid - Page 185/185

Presently I made her let me come and choose which frock she was to put

on for dinner, and I insisted that I should stay and see her hair being

brushed, and the maid, Henriette, with her French eye, beamed upon us

understandingly!

While Burton almost blubbered with happiness when I told him His

Ladyship and I were friends again.

"I knew it, Sir Nicholas, if you'd just made a fuss of her."

How right he was!

What a dinner we had, gay as two children, fond and foolish as

sweethearts always are,--and then the afterwards!

"Let us go and see the streets," my little love implored, "I feel that

we should shout our divine happiness with the crowd!"

But when we went out on the balcony to investigate, we saw that would be

impossible, I am not yet steady enough on my feet to have faced that

throng. So we stood there and sang and cheered with them, as they swept

on towards the Arc de Triomphe, and gradually a delirious intoxication

held us both, and I drew her back into the softly lighted room.

"Lover!" she whispered as she melted into my arms, and all I answered

was, "Soul of Mine."

And now I know what the whole of those verses mean!

And so this Journal is done!