Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/136

 dowry, of course, like any other Daddy. And I shouldn't have any say in the matter any more than any other girl. And you would never, never see me any more. So there."

"But as it is," Dexibios complained, "you smile at all the handsome nephews and shapely sons, till I am just ready to slaughter the whole convocation of them."

"They are such fun," Thessa gurgled, "but you mustn't want to kill them. They'll want to kill you when I marry you, but they won't. They'll be polite and congratulate us properly and go off and get married every one of them and forget about us as completely as we'll forget about them."

"I don't see why you are so confident of our getting married," Dexibios gloomed, "at this rate we'll die of old age before we marry."

"No we won't," Thessa exclaimed, "we'll be married soon. I knew I'd find a plan and one came to me, the right one too, the very night after I saw you last. No, it was three nights ago. I had a dream. You know that big picture of Apellides in the south gallery, the Oaks of Dodona? Well, I dreamed that you and I were at Dodona and stood hand in hand on the edge of the temple-platform, and asked Zeus were we to be man and wife. And the Lovers' Oak rustled, every bough of it, and on the Oak of