"I'll be hanged if I didn't!"
"Not about Number Three?"
"Yes, Number Three," said Jack, looking at me with a fixed and slightly stony stare.
Words were useless, and I sought expression for my feelings in the more emphatic whistle, which now was largely protracted.
"And how did she take it?" I asked, at length, as soon as I found voice to speak.
"As usual. Teased me, no end. Alluded to my recent proposal. Asked me if I had intended her to be Number Four, and declared her belief that I had thirty rather than three. Finally, the aunt waked up, and wanted to know what we were laughing at. Whereupon Louie said that she was laughing at a ridiculous story of mine, about an Indian juggler who could jeep three oranges in the air at the same time.
"'Captain Randolph,' said she 'you know all about Frederick the Great, of course?'
"'Of course," I said, 'and Alexander the Great also, and Julius Caesar, and Nebuchadnezzar, as the poet says.'
'"Perhaps you remember,' said Louie, in a grave tone, for her aunt was wide awake now, 'that the peculiar excellence of the genius of that great monarch consisted in his successful efforts to encounter the coalition raised against him. Though subject to the attacks of the three united powers of France, Austria, and Russia, he was still able to repel them, and finally rescued himself from destruction. Three assailants could not overpower him, and surely others may take courage from his example.'
"And after that little speech I came away, and here I am."