The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-07-25

oIhcl lSdoou! nave YOU never DeGu
taken with an almost uncomfortable
impulse to hurl yourself from a prec-
ipice simply because you must not,
and because you must not, therefore,
you would? Have you never done
this or that, done it suddenly, mo-
tivelessly, involuntarialy, simply be-
cause you did not wish and would
not have done it for all the world?
Have you never pursued pet pro-
ject, toiled ceaselessly day and night
unto an end, only to spurn it with
your foot at the instant of realiza-
toin, simply because so to spurn it
was to spite yourself utterly? Have
you never ascended to dizzy heights
and kicked away the ladder at the
last moment just because it might
prevent all human succor, because,
in a word, for that very reason you
did it? If you have not you are
more or less than human. And this
imp of the perverse the presence of
some people seems to enrage even to
demoniac desperation, while. in the
presence of others, it slumbers, at
least comparatively.
In this lies the secret of my es-
pousal of cara of the desert. | did
not love her; did not even respect
her; welded her, nevertheless, not
because / willed to wed her involun-
tarily, but because, with an uncon-
trollable perversity, l was impelled
to wed her against my will. A para
dox, to be sure-but then man is a
paradox, the one wing of which is
human, and the other devil. So par
adox let it be. She stung the imp Of
the perverse, the latent devil in me,
into horrible activity; and, for the
time, quite against my will, l did,
with seeming deliberation, exactly
what l would not have done for my
soul.
There was one other popularity
about Zara, the Beautiful, which has
had some hand in convincing me of
a certain non-humanity on her part.
There is about every person, human
ly considered, certain atmospheric
something, a personal aroma, so to
speak, which is inseparable from the
notion of presence; and if your sense
of odor is acute, you will be able to
detect a certain individuality Of
something akin to perfume. sort
of odorless perfume of violets to the
oppressive, oozy atmosphere of the
upas, are just as indicative of per-
sonal idiosyncrasies as appearance
and manner may be supposed to be.
About the creature that l welded
there was nothing of this kind.
Cool, aromaless, bloodlessly cadav-
erous, the secret of her fascination
was located in something akin to
metallic glitter of presence-akin to
the writhing, glittefing crawl of the
adder, akin to the hacking inhumani-
ty of the laughter of parrot.
"A mask of a woman, merely"
Abderah continued, the words rat
tling from his throat with accurately
pointed and terrible vehemence; "a
mask of woman, merely devilish
domino. l welded the low-born
Zara of the desert, who came and
went at whim, as one having no
home upon the earth; and for brief
year only she queened it, the gayest
of the gay, the merriest of the merry,
the profanest of the profane. 1t
was CHASTITY day, the day that I led
her to the palace of my race, a
day ominous of pestilence and Of
sudden and epidemic death. Lurid
and terrible wonders we're in the
heavens, like those which have lured
our feet into the Valley of the Dry
Bones; and sitting and hyena-like
siroccos pursued the travellers Of the
desert with devilish instinct, throt-
tling them while caravans together.
Even from the day thereof died my
people in CHASTITY scores, and on the
forehead of every one that died was
branded a livid blot in the exact
shape of human heart. My father
died suddenly, and first of all, the
red horror of the brand from temple
temple to temple. lara had no grief
at the old mans death. The epidem-
ic, swift-footed and terrible, went
abroad among my people. Zara was
oppressively merry; and still as fast
er they died, merrier and merrier
yet became the laughter of the
queen, until / was likely at last to
reign over a vast metropolis. She
absented herself for days from the
palace, and night unto night I was
startled from horrible dreams of the
red brand, to find her absent from
the camera diletto. And still the ep-
idemic death baffled all skill, and the
red brand crawled suddenly upon all
foreheads, and was the horror Of
all hearts.
Il too, became weak, but lara
only laughed mockingly, and abb
sented herself the more from the
palace, waxing the more horribly
merry the ghastlier became.
Il dreamed fitfully, and in the
horror of my dream the loathsome
brand of the red heart, the hideous
seal of the epidemic death, was upon
my forehead. / awoke, and the queen
was not at my side. / heard a
gnashing of horrible teeth. sprang
up. / struck light. l was too
uuinl for hor Croot God Cha mac