THE ORDEAL OF IDA PENDRAGON
“ Sir! "
“Yes or no?
Well, silence gives
consent—No!
she
wasn't]
You lie! she never gave herself but once—go and
look at the mark on her throat! "
Rolles reeled back, stunned by the bludgeon truth.
“ Ι am a Fool
! "
“ Not by a long chalk!
Keep your end up, and you’ll be a
Magus in this life yet, though
In the meantime—oh, be a
Devil!"
The younger man divined the infinite love and wisdom
beneath the brusquerie of the Brother.
His eyes filled with tears.
“ I'll win her, sir, by God I " he said enthusiastically.
“Lose yourself to her.
Only so.
Off now, boy!
I am
busy.
I must twiddle—twiddle—twiddle."
Edgar bowed and went.
He could not trust himself to
speak: the Love that was the whole being of the Brother
melted the snow of his soul.
He loved.
Not Ida, not the
world, not anything.
It was pure love, love without object,
love as love is in itself.
He did not love; he was Love.
But he strode straight back to Ida Pendragon.
Before she
left her bed, they were married.
A week later they drove
through the cool swift air to the South; and there, among
the vines, they learnt how—once in a century—the phoenix
Passion may rise from the fire of Vice, and how in the beak
of the phoenix proved by the fire is the ring of Love.
*
*
*
ll
*
A year later.
They were in a. villa at Mustapha.
The sea
and sky strove enviously which should
best
answer
the
sun’s question with the word blue.
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