THE EQUINOX
I
THE JUGGLER
“ AnD he well deserves it!”
“Oh! it must have been ripping. I do wish I had been
there; ... the horse-whip, and the monkey. He is sucha silly
fellow, poor ‘ cheval hongre!’”
“Ah, yes! the new nickname.”
“Don’t you think that it fits him?”
“Oh yes.”
The silent man of the party moved uneasily in his arm-
chair. He was slow of cogitation.
“ Like the waistcoat of the late Nessus fitted Hercules, eh,
what?” he suggested.
“A fool!”
“ Hercules?”
“No, Lionel... and, er... yes, Hercules also. Tabard
reminds me of that Bible chap.”
“ Potiphar’s Joseph!” the silent man exclaimed triumph-
antly.
“Wrong again, Bernard. I meant Mary’s Joseph.”
The silent man threw his cigar over the fender.
II
LA PAPESSE
LioneL Taparp had been horse-whipped by a woman; he had
received—or taken—no compensation. This I attribute to
his mother. One reads many tales, the paper thereof being
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