The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX On the second day after his arrival in the village where Ljubov lived, he noticed the child and her marvellous beauty. For hours, having retired to the house belonging to a rich lady whose guest he was, he drivelled, with before him the enrapturing vision of Ljubov’s priceless jewels. He proceeded carefully; made friends with all the children; and, the seventh day having come, he met her outside the village, by chance— so she thought—and made her a present of a few trifling ornaments. Then he placed over his own eyes two empty shells of walnut, and pretended to play some childish game of hide-and-seek. After a few minutes, it was her turn to don the blinding apparel. But they were different from his, the empty shells he fixed under her eyebrows! Ljubov felt no pain, rather an exquisite sensation of physical dcen-étve, of wondrous languor. Ay, but a few minutes later, the sun and moon and stars had lost their beauty for her. There were two large cavities under her eye- lids. The force within the nutshells had drawn the eyes out of them. The Man ran away, carrying a treasured little box, and no more was ever heard of him in those parts. IV “What boots it to tell of the long, awful days of darkness through which poor little Ljubov lived before she grew accustomed to her blindness? I am not a medical philosopher; I like home and comfort far too much. If I journey, I must needs travel in state, and my staff includes both a medical 298