Why, I thought her at first a barmaid--a barmaid! Then I
thought her to be in some way a lawbreaker, a socialist conspirator.
It would be droll if it were not sad. The Princess Hildegarde!" I
laughed dismally. "Dan, old man, let's dig out at once, and close the
page. We'll talk it over when we are older."
"No, we will face it out. She loves you. Why not? So do I." He got
off the bed and came over to me and rested his hands on my shoulders.
"Jack, my son, next to her I love you better than anything in the
world. We have worked together, starved together, smoked and laughed
together. There is a bond between us that no human force can separate.
The Princess, if she cannot marry you, shall not marry the Prince. I
have a vague idea that it is written. 'The moving finger writes; and,
having writ, moves on.' We cannot cancel a line of it."
"Dan, you will do nothing rash or reckless?"
"Sit down, my son; sit down. Premeditation is neither rashness nor
recklessness. Jack, life has begun with you; with me it has come to an
end. When there is nothing more to live for, it is time to die.
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