The Equinox (Volume I, Number VII)

THE EQUINOX she forgot the obvious corollary of removing the flower from her dress. She was nestled in the arm-chair when the old analyst tiptoed into the room and clapped his hands over her eyes. “ Who is it?” said he gaily. "Why, you're Jack from Alaska, of course," she answered, laughing. “ Guess again ?" And the child guessed the German Emperor, and Lewis Waller, and everyone else she could think of. “Wrong.” “Wrong.” “Wrong.” "Why,“ she cried, jumping up and facing him, “ it's Professor Zircon! The last person in the world I should have expected to find here ! " She threw her arms round his neck and called him a “ dear silly.” ”Well, what's the news, child ?" " No news. I'm so sorry the chief's dead." “ Doesn’t matter to me. What a pretty flower in your dress! " She had an instinct of sudden and terrible danger; and lied instantly. " I bought it for your buttonhole." And she fastened it there. Professor Zircon called her a sweet, thoughtful fairy, and gave her a kiss. Such a shudder ran through him as rarely stirred his veins. He had some flash of memory, of Judas, perhaps, signalled across the forty years since he had heard the legend of the Gospels at his mother's knee. “ But there is news!” he added gaily. “ I'm going to show you my great discovery. I’ve found out how to make 96