The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-24

thrown away the world?"
 And do you think we fool the world, hiding up here?--Poufi The world knows, but it doesn't care It forgives and condones because, for sooth, we amuse it-I as an actress and you as q dramatist. We are liniments for it's mental rheumatism, as it were"
 T am actually two menv
 No" Selma said. she should have been two women. That is always so. All things to one man. She is crystal. that woman. The sun shines through her. but leaves no warmth. She catches the light and reflects it; she has no light of her own.
 Have you ever held your hand near window pane in the winter sunshine? Soon your palm grows rosy and warm. but the glass remains cold. She is like that. Have you not told me so thousand times?
 "A woman without fire, without companionship, without interest, whose body lives but whose heart was never born. Haven't you told me? Don't l Know? And yet she calls to every fiber of your being, from the ends of the world.
 When you put your arms around me. you poor innocent, don't I know that you are playing it is she? So often do you close your eyes when kiss you! l know. You are visual izing her. Nature is inexorable, but not always just"
 The man sat down heavily in his chair and leaned on his elbows, T am damnedi' he said.
 ba nj m caro mic; only some of us are more damned than others. Yes, poets and dramatists and novelists and philoso- phers rave about nature, but Tor all that she is unjust"
 The woman pressed her palm upon her heart. Look at mel Am l not proper mate? Am I not beautiful? Have I not genius and fire and the capacity of growing fat on crumbs? Have you not called me pomegranate and oranges?
 intellectually and physically I am your mate. Have-I not inspired you? Have I not kindled your fancy thousand times? And always her specter glides in between. You have described her so many times that I know just how she looks; beautiful and cold, serene and passionless.
 "The world speaks of our liaison It Is a poor fool of a world. It Is my intellect alone you love; the heart, which is I. is nothing. Am I bitter? Perhaps-but only in sad ness never in reproach.
 T am trying to understand what is not humanly understandable. God gave me the right to love one man, whoever he was, whatever he was, I IL ls A&H n ture losses this riddle at my feet" The man folded his arms and slid ? down in his chair.
 "A little while ago I drew the world. after me as child draws toy" she went on. "I made human -ity laugh and weep; 1 made it ten der and brave; I made It go home with better hearts or Lighter. I was the potter and 1t was the clay; I was the musician. and under my fingers lay thousand strings"
 Am a pagan? No doubt. My gods were once Odin and Thor: you have said that. How I drew them. speaking a tongue which was not my own! And I drew you: but it was only my art. my brain. My heart was never the magnet. though at the be- ginning I believed it was
 
 I learned that the mate you had chosen was made of beautiful ice who took no joy in your genius, who understood you not. I love you; and when | say that, I say everything. What is the magnet this crystal woman has that draws you, out of my arms. away from my kisses; don't understand. You, reaching out 2 for her; l, reaching out for you--the eternal triangle. But what does sne reach out -for?'
 Selma"
 'She is the peak. She is the Mat terhorn. She. is the ice We gazed upon from the Gornergrat. What does she reach out for? Is there human unde- string? She must desire something"
 She was always very religious"
 "Ah. Then it is God she wants? Yes. yes: lie when I say thatI am not bitter. I do net reproach you, l reproach her. She has no right to you: I have every right. If only she loved you and wanted you, it would he different. I could go away. know ing at least you would be happy. It is sour happiness: my own is noth ing. Why doesn't she divorce you?"
 s'She doesn't believe in that. Her lawyer wrote that she would never divorce me-" the man said wearily. T saw her on the street today SN . came into town tc shop. I followed her for two hours. She did not see smc'
 Would Know and Feel
 And she did not know! Oh, if I were at one end of the city and