Page:Love's trilogy.djvu/255

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A BOOK OF LOVE
245

did not release her. He was content with the crumbs that fell from her lover's table.

But the man who is 'content' is not a man.

Marie is the most fascinating woman in the world, and I love her, but were I to suspect that she dreamed of any greater happiness than to be mine, then I would leave her on the instant.

I would bite off my tongue rather than beg for her love. One may go a-begging for orders and titles, for favours and wealth, but never for love.


XLVIIII review those days in my memory, and they pass before me one unbroken triumphal procession.

As in his eyrie, near the sky, the eagle will rest awhile, so sit I aloft in my fortified castle, but the stir and excitement of battle is tempting me afield. I sail away for foreign coasts.

I swoop down and ravage the towns of the enemy. When I return with my viking ship full of splendid spoil, the torches blaze in my castle.

Hy and halloo! The dance is merry! It is a war without fear of defeat, a feast without thought of the morrow.

It is said that the old vikings were worshipped most blindly, and most truly adored by those women whom they had stolen from foreign coasts; and I think it very likely. Every true woman dreams of a brigand who would wildly desire her and carry her away by force in his strong arms. Don't tell me those cloister legends about young