do you suppose anyone was ever
more buffeted about by Fate than I? Orphaned and thrown out upon the
world at four, orphaned again last year, made an heiress, then an
outcast, and finally reinstated again! I--I'm getting awfully tired of
not really belonging to anyone!" She drew a deep breath. "Kearn,
dear, do you suppose you could manage to marry me before you go to war?"

"You darling!" He hugged her close, pillows and all. "I didn't dare
ask you that now, but, oh, I wanted to! If I could feel that you
really did belong to me, dear, I'd go with a far-lighter heart and
surer courage to meet whatever comes, and with ten times the strength,
too, for I should go to fight for my own!--And then, you are such a
changeling, you know! I love Willa Murdaugh, but I have always loved
Gentleman Geoff's Billie since the day I met her coming from the Blue
Chip, and I think that I love her best, after all! Gentleman Geoff's
Billie, _my_ Billie, will you be my wife, soon, _soon_?"

There was a pause, while a little breeze stirred the starry,
perfume-laden branches about them, shimmering mistily in the moon's
haze. Then, far away, a night bird called eagerly, tenderly to its
mate, and Willa lifted tired, happy arms and placed them about the head
bent above her, drawing it down.

"I thought you were never, in all the world, going to ask me!" she
sighed.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIFTH ACE***

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