Page:My Friend Annabel Lee (1903).pdf/167

 to herself, 'is the day I go to eat lotus flowers with my best-beloved—and virtues are two eyes of amethyst that are with me still as I am drowning.'

"Auden Spoon-bill was drowning together with her.—

"That's all of the story," said my friend Annabel Lee.

"Thank you," said I. "It is lovely in its quaintness. What does it mean, Annabel Lee?"

"Mean?" said my friend Annabel Lee. "I didn't say it meant anything."

"But I suppose," said I, "everything that's true means something."

"Very likely," said my friend Annabel Lee. "But this story isn't true. I made it up."

Because it isn't true, or for some other reason, the story still runs in my head. How like my friend Annabel Lee it is!