The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE EQUINOX The thousand meshes of her spider web were torn, He under- stood. He understood that she cared nothing, had never cared, would never have given a hair of her head {or all his body and soul. Understanding was to his brain a momentary death. Then with a silent snarl he sprang at her. She and her chair crashed backwards to the floor, and the black leopard was upon her, his teeth sunk in her throat. Edgar Rolles was only just in time. His boot caught the murderer behind the ear—and Edgar Rolles had played football The beast was dead. Edgar stooped and caught her up, blood leaping from her throat, while Ninon, shriek upon shriek rising in torment, rushed to rouse the people of the restaurant. “ Oh, my brother,” gasped the girl. “ Could you not understand? I wanted to die, so." They were her last words for long. Lavenue’s was a storm of chattering and gesticulating fools. The police pushed them aside. The corpse to the mortuary; the girl to the hospital; the man to the Poste. Ninon, wringing her hands and crying and laughing, had run like a Bacchante up the Boulevard to the Dome. 142