Life — March 7, 1912 — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

494 The Dance of the Seven Veils ILD, beautiful, music, strange, hideous Leaping and crying, writhing and call- ing, Music of rich, weird color and half- veiled shapes swaying and bend- + ing in insane sorrow and merri- ment. , ceaseless cry, queer, broken, rhyth- mic, sweet; torn notes lost in a tortent of discord. You call to me, the untamed in me, the evil in me! Bad, mad, music rioting in grief that has no nobility, swirling in an unreal light; twisting, seething thro’ cestacies rapture of sensuous de- screaming, — murmuring, of maddened harmony— Lovely, horrible, crimson-tainted music! Leolyn Louise ett. Auld Lang Syne T was a warm afternoon late in the spring. Willoughby walked along as if in a dream. It seemed, indeed, as if it could not be true. Suddenly, in the space of a few hours, all of his ambitions, his desires, had been realized. He thought, at the ‘same instant, of his life only a few years ago—wild thoughts, wild companions—and shuddered. Well, he had escaped all of that and was now on the high road to everything that was worth while in this world. She had accepted him—the prettiest, fairest, richest girl that he knew. Not that he had placed the money first. It was perhaps a part of his unconscious thrift that he had happened to fall in love with such a rich girl. It scemed in a measure accidental; at any rate, his conscience was clear on that point. He assured himself again and again that if she had been penniless the re- sult would have been the same. In- deed, with a swelling of his chest, he liked to think how, if she had been poor, he would have come to her res- cue, would have sheltered her, loved her all the more. But she wasn’t poor, and that Great Fact seemed so much added to his cup of worldly joy. Then there was another thing that stood out in his recollection in letters of light. Her father and mother had been so naturally pleased. “Young man,” he remembered every word the old gentleman had said, “young man,‘ your future before you. You hold a good position. Your habits are steady. You come of good family, I rejoice that Margaret has chosen so well. I am glad that you are going to be one of us.” In his dream he was almost blind to outward sensations. He had chosen unconsciously a street that was not much frequented by stragglers. It was dusk and the sun had cast its last glimmer over the roofs of the distant office buildings. Suddenly he was recalled to himself by a laugh. It came to him like a sharp pain. For of all the laughs in the world, that was one that he never could have forgotten. He looked up hurriedly and saw—a woman, Such a woman! hung about an Her shabby clothes emaciated but once shapely figure Her face, through the traces of paint, was drawn. Only her eyes glittered. The fire in them had suddenly been renewed and blazed up again at the sight of this old friend, so marvelously and unexpect- edly thrown across her path. “Jim! It was useless for him to try to es- cape. He looked down at her silently for an instant. Then, like a hunted animal, he gazed desperately around. She knew of what he was thinking and laughed again. “You are safe,” she “No one will see you. whispered But to-mor- row “Poor little girl,” he said manfully His old tenderness revived. “ You are in bad shape. I had no idea——" She stopped him with a gesture. “Never mind me. You are going to be married.” “How did you know?” “T saw something about you in the paper. Then it’s true. The Sandle- tons—millionai “Yes—if you already know it’ She laughed again. (Continued on page 515) icbooks.com