The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

MR. TODD EUPHEMIA. How splendid! You mean it? It is true? Better than all the rest! Come, come! [She throws her arm vound his neck and runs laughing out of the room with him. [Enter CARR and CHARLEY, @ toy steam-engine puffing in Sront of them; they follow on hands and knees. The engine stops at the other end of the room. CHARLEY. Oh, my poor engine’s stopped! CARR. You must pour more spirit into it. [cHaRLEY goes to the cupboard and gets it, busying him- self until CARR’S exit. CARR sighs heavily, and sits down thoughtfully. Todd’s been too frequently to this house. Well, Charley and I must get on as best we can. Life is a hard thing, my God! “ Meantime there is our life here. Well?” It seems sometimes to me as if all the world’s wisdom were summed up in that one Epicurus phrase. For if Todd has solved all their problems with a word, at least he supplies no hint of the answer to mine. For I—it seems I hardly know what question to ask ! Oh, Charley boy, the future is with you, and with your children—or, can humanity ever solve the great secret? Is progress a delusion? Are men mad? Is the great secret truly transcendental? We are like madmen, beating out our poor brains upon the walls of the Universe. Is there no Power that might reveal itself? [Kneels.] Who art Thou before whom all things are equal, Iv Q 233