The Eagle's Shadow

Brief Extract: This is the story of Margaret Hugonin and of the Eagle. And with your permission, we will for the present defer all consideration of the bird, and devote our unqualified attention to Margaret. I have always esteemed Margaret the obviou ... Read more

Brief Extract: This is the story of Margaret Hugonin and of the Eagle. And with your permission, we will for the present defer all consideration of the bird, and devote our unqualified attention to Margaret. I have always esteemed Margaret the obvious, sensible, most appropriate name that can be bestowed upon a girl-child, for it is a name that fits a woman - any woman - as neatly as her proper size in gloves. Yes, the first point I wish to make is that a woman-child, once baptized Margaret, is thereby insured of a suitable name. Be she grave or gay in after-life, wanton or pious or sullen, comely or otherwise, there will be no possible chance of incongruity; whether she develops a taste for winter-gardens or the higher mathematics, whether she takes to golf or clinging organdies, the event is provided for. One has only to consider for a moment, and if among a choice of Madge, Marjorie, Meta, Maggie, Margherita, Peggy, and Gretchen, and countless others - if among all these he cannot find a name that suits her to a T - why, then, the case is indeed desperate and he may permissibly fall back upon Madam or - if the cat jumps propitiously, and at his own peril - on Darling or Sweetheart. Less