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"I got a furlough. I asked for it on account of you. Come on, let's go eat. I've got some dough now."
Divine raised her eyes to his face.
"So you do love me, Archangel?"
Gabriel's shoulders twitched with annoyance.
"You deserve a good smack", he said, clenching his teeth. "You can't tell, I suppose?"
Divine closed her eyes. She smiled.
"Go away, Archangel," she said in a hollow voice. "Go away. I have seen thee enough. Thou givest me too much joy, Archangel."
She spoke as a somnambulist would speak, standing straight and rigid, with a set smile on her face.
"Go away, or i'll fall into your arms. Oh, Archangel!"
She murmured:
"Oh, Archangel!"
Smiling gently, Gabriel walked off with long slow strides, for he was wearing boots. He died in the French campaign, and the German soldiers buried him where he fell, at the gate of a castle in Touraine. Divine came and sat on his grave, smoked a Craven there with Jimmy. |