y, I find that I love you too much
to take any other way. Can you love me as I am, love me enough to say:
'Do what is right for you?'"

"It is right for you to have justice!" I pleaded with him.

"I would rather have love."

"You can have both!"

"No. It doesn't seem so to me."

"Oh, you are obstinate--obstinate!"

"Perhaps! I'm afraid I always was. But I love you. I've suffered, and
now I want to be happy and at peace. It isn't only for your sake. It's
for mine as well. Great love is worthy of the only great revenge. Shall
I burn the paper?"

"For God's sake, say yes, Peggy!" I heard Diana sob. But I hardly
listened. If she said more, I did not hear it. I was looking at Eagle.

"Does silence give consent?" he asked. There was a new light in his
eyes, brighter and clearer than the careless light of youth that was
lost. I could not quench it. So I bowed my head and let the khaki coat,
which half unconsciously I had been holding all the time, drop to the
floor. The glory of Eagle's smile repaid me. He took my hand in his, and
leading me, walked to the fireplace. There he stooped, and without
hesitation dropped the paper, which might have changed his whole life,
into the flames.

"Good-bye to the past!" he cried. "Hail to the future! Peggy, such as it
is, such as it can be for me now, will you share it?"

"You know!" I whispered.

He pressed my hand tightly, then turned to Diana.

"You had better go home to your husband," he said. "You can sleep in
peace to-night, and all nights. Presently I shall take Peggy to
Hampstead; but I want her to myself for a moment first."

Without a word to either of us, Diana obeyed, her head bent low. I
suppose she could find nothing to say, since "Thank you" would be
commonplace: and Di is never commonplace.

I heard Eagle open the door for her, and shut it behind the trailing
white satin and purple brocade. Then he came back to me and held out his
arms.

I had been in the sky with him before, but this was heaven.

* * * * *

He is at the front now, and has been for a long time, but whatever may
happen, neither life nor death can part our souls. The sacrifice he made
was for my sake, and for the sake of love. So you see why, changing only
our names, I have written this bit of secret history and told the truth
about Eagle March and Monsieur Mars.

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret History Revealed By Lady Pe