THE EQUINOX
mouth until, choking with their very volume, her voice broke
to a strangled yell, and the agony of the acid bit into her soul.
She fell on the floor fainting
“Vile thing!” screamed Zircon, spurning her with his
foot
He choked:
his brain
fell suddenly clear with the
lucidity of intellect.
He walked into the dining—room, and
whistled as he walked.
There he sat down.
The next move
in his infernal revenge was the waking of Muriel, and that
might be soon or later
He had not calculated the effect of
waiting; his nerves cried out.
For the first time he had a
glimpse of the doctrine of eternal punishment—perceived that
the resurrection of the body was
no necessary condition,
Tortured, he gazed upon the second hand of his watch,
He
could have sworn it stopped, when it shook and staggered on
with the importance of Big Ben, and he realized that his own
time-sense was radically upset.
He wondered if it was the
same with her—the devil in him gloatecl‘
“A gentleman to see you, sirl" said the butler, opening
the door.
" He wouldn’t give his namel ”
“I'll see him," said Zircon, as blithe as a larkr
“Show
him in!"
In strode the bearded stranger of the afternoon.
“You damned
scoundrel!”
he addressed the smiling
Professor.
”So this is where my sister spends her evenings!
Be
good
enough to explain
" He broke
off,
for the
Professor
had thrust
both
hands
deep into
his trouser
pockets and leant back against the bookcase, laughing, laugh-
ing, laughing.
ALEISTER CROWLEY.
98