MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

Miss Midland looked at him hard. "Do you think it likely the girl would have him then?""Don't you?" he said, still laughing, and tucking away the last of a foie-gras sandwich.She turned away, frowning, "I don't see how you can call me cynical!"He raised his eyebrows, "That's not cynical," he protested. "You have to take folks theway they are, and not the way you think it would be pretty to have them. It mightn't bethe most dignified position for the king, but I never did see the use of dignity that got inthe way of your having what you wanted."She looked at him with so long and steady a gaze that only her patent absence of mindkept it from being a stare. Then, "I think I will go for a walk by myself," she said."Sure, if you want to," he assented, "and I'll take a nap under this magnolia tree. I've beenworking late nights, lately."When she came back after an hour, the little inclosure was quite still, and, walking overto the magnolia, she saw that the young man had indeed fallen soundly asleep, one armunder his head, the other flung wide, half buried in the grass. For a long time she lookeddown gravely at the powerful body, at the large, sinewy hand, relaxed like a sleeping