The Equinox (Volume I, Number III)

THE EYES OF ST. LJUBOV Briefly—for the time is approaching which we must better utilize—Piotr’s hand shook so that he missed touching the lobe of little Ljubov’s ear. The jewel he held up to her face touched, instead, one of the empty orbits of his little friend. Our villain, the Man who bought and stole Eyes, must have done his job very properly indeed, for Ljubov, who, in a vain attempt to see that which was shewn her, had opened wide the dark cavities under her eyebrows. Well, I suppose the eye touched a still sensitive nerve. No sooner had it done so than she uttered an exclamation. “T see! Piotr, I sez! I see!” And helping herself now, she rapidly unset the eyes from their golden crown and thrust them where they ought to have been all that time. Miracle of Miracles! She saw as you and I do. She saw poor little Piotr who stood before her, almost out of his mind, sharing her excitement. She took his hand, drew him to her and kissed his fore- head. Then she wept for a long time. Finally, she sat down by him and told him of her new sensations. VI But they were unsatisfactory. The sky she saw was, in spite of the Stars, inferior to the beauty she had endowed it with. The sweet face of her little friend even was less sweet to behold than it had been to her childish fancy. And, gently, with an extraordinary delicacy, she spoke of her disappoint- ment. “Oh! it was more beautiful as we thought it, Piotroushka!” she exclaimed. 307