The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EYES OF ST. LJUBOV by her golden voice did I recognize her. I listened to their childish talk, and joined in it, and heard it all from her lips. Then, a few days later, something happened. A lady entered. There Elphénor became silent, for the door was violently shaken from the outside. “Come in,” he said. The door was pushed open, then shut again, but no one had entered. The disciples exchanged a glance of amusement; one of them said: “ Has a lady entered?” They were all made merry by that exhibition of Neptunian spirit of apropos. But Elphénor Pistouillat, like the French Southerner he was, missed the courteous element in life, and began to curse the twelve young men. He was a bad-tempered man, and a very theatrical one. He rose and walked to him who had caused them all to laugh. “T know you, sir,” Elphénor said, purple in the face, “IT know you, unwholesome monkey. Your father was adealer in pork sausages and cooked ham, a trader in swine. Nothing better could be expected from you than your pig-like groans.” His blood was boiling already, and these few words he uttered were but a preliminary letting out of steam. He walked in the dark to a large cupboard at the far end of his room and took from a shelf twelve little wax figures which he stood on asmall table. Rapidly he mumbled an invocation, an incantation, and a deprecation. Then he walked to the fireplace, took the red-hot poker which he kept ever ready for the purpose of lighting his charcoal, and returned with it to the table. 301