The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE EQUINOX you laughed? Such abandonment to mirth implies a standard of seriousness unshakable." ”You are a witch,” said he. “It is sorcery to know that I have a secret, But to discover it you must be an adept." “I know this," she answered, making a secret sign. “ This," he retorted, with the mano in fica. “ If you can laugh at me," she said, “ you must indeed be a great man ! " “Know,” said he pompously, “that you speak to an Absolute Grand Patriarch of the Rite of Mizraim. “A button!" she laughed back. “I was born to undo them. So Ι always wear laced boots." “True enough,” said Edgar Rolles. "I will take you seriously then. If you really understand the sign you gave me, you know that the mano in tica is but a caricature of the answer to it. Why are you painted and perfumed?" “Because I am ambitious, may I not be vicious?” she rimed. "If I see anyone that seems likely to amuse me, I try and amuse him—or her,” she laughed. “ Is not that the Golden Rule?" “Well," said Edgar hesitatingly, “well . . . “ “I am so abstemious, so self-restrained, that I fear the reproach of the ascetic. Love is my balancing-pole." She threw her arm round his neck, and her mouth shuddered on his in a long, deliberate, skilful kiss. “ Art?" sighed he, fallen back half fainting in his seat. “Art concealed;” she glowed, radiant, intoxicated with her own enthusiasm. “ Yes,” he agreed, " consummate art ! ᾽᾽ [18