The Eagle's Shadow

  XIV

  I regret to admit that Mr. Woods did not toss feverishly about his bedall through the silent watches of the night. He was very miserable,but he was also twenty-six. That is an age when the blind bow-goddeals no fatal wounds. It is an age to suffer poignantly, if you will;an age wherein to aspire to the dearest woman on earth, to write herhalting verses, to lose her, to affect the _cliches_ of cynicism, tohear the chimes at midnight--and after it all, to sleep like a top.

  So Billy slept. And kind Hypnos loosed a dream through the gates ofivory that lifted him to a delectable land where Peggy was nineteen,and had never heard of Kennaston, and was unbelievably sweet and dearand beautiful. But presently they and the Colonel put forth to sea--ona great carved writing-desk--fishing for sharks, which the Colonelsaid were very plentiful in those waters; and Frederick R. Woodsclimbed up out of the sea, and said Billy was a fool and must go tocollege; and Peggy said that was impossible, as seventeen hundred andfifty thousand children had to be given an education apiece, and theycouldn't spare one for Billy; and a missionary from Zambesi Land cameout of one of the secret drawers and said Billy must give him bothof his feet as he needed them for his working-girls' classes; andthereupon the sharks poked their heads out of the water and began, ina deafening chorus, to cry, "Feet, feet, feet!" And Billy then wokewith a start, and found it was only the birds chattering in the dawnoutside.

  Then he was miserable.

  He tossed, and groaned, and dozed, and smoked cigarettes until hecould stand it no longer. He got up and dressed, in sheer desperation,and went for a walk in the gardens.

  The day was clear as a new-minted coin. It was not yet wholly aired,not wholly free from the damp savour of night, but low in the east thesun was taking heart. A mile-long shadow footed it with Billy Woodsin his pacings through the amber-chequered gardens. Actaeon-like, hesurprised the world at its toilet, and its fleeting grace somewhatfortified his spirits.

  But his thoughts pestered him like gnats. The things he said to theroses it is not necessary to set down.