The Equinox (Volume I, Number V)

THE ORDEAL OF IDA PENDRAGON continued to burn with a low hissing noise rarely interrupted by a dry crackle‘ " It is well," said Rolles, " let us depart." Ida Pendragon had not said a word. She put on her hat and followed to the door as fatalistieally as the condemned man walks to the gallows. She had passed through anticipa- tion; she was content to await what might be. At the door she whispered, hushed in awe of the real silence of the room with its monotonous hiss, in his ear. " You have the Lamp. I almost begin to wonder if you have not the Ring!" " ‘This is a secret sign,’ " he quoted, “ ‘and thou shalt not disclose it unto the profane.’ To—night yours be the ring— the Eternal Ring, the Serpent to twine about my heart.” “ Ahl could I crush it I " He closed the door. Like a priest celebrating his first high mass he led her through Paris Neither spoke. Only as they mounted the steps of the Café he took her arm and said, sharply and sternly: “Attention! From this moment I am Edgar Rolles, and you are Ida Pendragon. No more: not a thought of our real relation. Man and woman, if you will; beasts in the jungle, if you will; flowers by the wayside, if you will; but nothing more. Else you will not only fail in the ordeal, but you will be swept aside out of the Path. You were in greater danger than you knew this afternoon; you will yet pay the price." ”I understand,” she said. “ You devil! I love you." " And I love every inch of your white body I " They ran laughing arm in arm through the swing doors. 127