“I thought you had made up your mind.”
“I had. But when you said it about unpopular guest it was unmade.”
“Keep it made up.”
“I can hold a decision.”
“I know. You can hold any damn thing. But, Daughter, sometimes you don’t just hold. That is for stupids. Sometimes you have to switch fast.”
“I’ll switch if you like.”
“No. I think the decision was sound.”
“But won’t it be an awfully long time until morning?”
“That all depends on whether one has luck or not.”
“I should sleep well.”
“Yes,” the Colonel said. “At your age if you can’t sleep they ought to take you out and hang you.”
“Oh please.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I meant shoot you.”
“We are nearly home and you could be kind now if you wanted.”
“I’m so kind I stink. Let somebody else be kind.”
They were in front of the palace now and there it was; the palace. There was nothing to do now but pull the bell cord, or enter with the key. I’ve been lost in this place, the Colonel thought, and I was never lost in my life.
“Please kiss me good-night, kindly.”
The Colonel did and loved her so he could not bear it.
She opened the door with the key, which was in her bag. Then she was gone and the Colonel was alone, with the worn pavement, the wind, which still held in the
