"God knows how glad I am to see thee!" Alexander laughed.

"Not more glad than I am at the sight of you! What's the tidings ?" "What should they be?
I am tired of being King George's soldier!" "So that you are tired of being any little king of this earth's soldier!" "Why, I think I am--" "Kings 'over the water' included, Ian ?" "Kings without kingdoms?
Well," said Ian, "they don't amount to much, do they ?" "They do not." The two moved together to the table and the chairs by it.

"You are free of them, Ian ?" "What is it to be free of them ?" "Well, to be plain, out of the Stewart cark and moil! Pretender, Chevalier de St.George, or uncrowned king--let it drift away like the dead leaf it is!" "A dead leaf.

Is it a dead leaf ?...

I wonder!...