THE EQUINOX
balancing before him their tempting, repulsive, holy and foul,
loose or firm, twin breasts. Himself, cloven-hoofed and curl-
horned, had to flagellate his own flesh with iron chains, which
failed to overcome the moral urtication, as had the repeated
physical purgings of his early years. Narcissus, in a corner,
pale and smiling, urged him to renewed efforts; Spirits, both
incubi and succubae, thrusting themselves upon him, ate him
away...
But all these dreams gradually faded out. Lionel had
become a translucid set of bones, with two big eyes heavily
crowned. The time of his knowledge had come.
XV
THE DEVIL
I trust I said nothing that could lead the reader into the
belief that the cottage was a lonely spot. Men and women
lived in its almost immediate neighbourhood. Among others,
Sir Anthony Lawthon and his daughters. I propose that we
concern ourselves solely with the eldest of these, Mary
Lawthon.
I hardly know how to describe her. She was a woman of
six and twenty, most easy to understand, very simple and very
complex, simple in her complexity, complex in her simplicity.
To men she seemed a man, strong, healthy, a rough-rider, a
ski-runner, a champion in many sports, who smoked her pipe
and emptied her glass passing well. To women she seemed a
woman, whose hands were ever ready for a soft caress, whose
lips were full and red, whose skin was velvet.
As a whole, she was very manly in her life, speech and
34