Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-05-20
The Cuneiform Inscription

Paris on his way home.
"What did he show l,im?"
The reptilian gesture was even, il
possible, more eager in it's appeal.
One did not know, I went on; there
was every conjecture. Backmartin's
big, loose face worked like soft rub
Der.
And he said that thing up there"
he indicated the mantel with his hand.
would tell where he hid 1T, IL any
body could understand what it
meant?"
Yes"
| "And what did the other learned
Johnnies say about it,"
They said It was nonsense, 1 con-
tinued. They said 1t was an absurd
Ifty on its face. No inscription ever
had two royal figures drawn I'm; the
wedge was never inclined to the left;
it was always pointed toward the
right, or downward or aslant to the
right, or two combined at their heads
to form an angle. They said no word
or syllable or gunu-sign of either
the Persian, SUSAN or Babylonian
language was indicated: they said the
thing was hoax
But the old cock said they were
only fit for puzzles, didn't he-ap he
would make one to fit their wits-eh.
what?"
1t was what Sir Hector had uttered
about it. I told him. He held these
learned men in a bitter contempt.
Their knowledge of deciphering in
scriptions,; he said, was confined to
the Black Cabinets of Berlin and
Vienna. and their knowledge Of AS
syriology to the sacred books Of the
Jews-he would leave them an in
scription within the. zone of their
intelligence.
1 heard the easement door of the
drawing room to- the terrace open,
and went out. Backmartin fol-
lowed me with a sharp looka- He had
grasped the situation, He knew that
things had gone 70 pieces and why !
came: some of it by inquiry, no doubt.
and the, remainder by sort of in
stinct. He was slack and despicable-
Doggy in the chair-and the glance
seemed to emerge from a trace, in
the beast, of something firmer.
! I found Marjorie on the terrace;
and I advanced toward her as toward
something heavenly and denied. She
was lovely beyond any descriptive
words that I can write here. To cata-
log her would be TO give no adequate
| impression. Dark hair. and great
deep eyes. and the alluring figure of
, a Nereid are not descriptive phrases,
but they are fragments of fancy that
another man-to know the thing
mean-must At his own beloved wom-
an into.
I loved her. and. to me, she pos
sessed the charm of dreams.
There is this quality, strange and
bitter, in a loss, that it doubles the
; value of the thing removed; when il
is gone once. wholly, one sees with an
, uncanny clearness how incompatible
it was. Tonight this terrace was
some delicate, vague kingdom OF
illusion. 1t would presently vanish
There would be only an hour of il
! with her. And it seemed to me, as
walked slowly beside her the length
of the ftag-paved terrace, that this
hour was priceless. Into it the mys-
!. terious purpose OF every day that ]
had lived, of every day that I would
vet live, seemed to converge, and to
escape with the sound of my foot
q steps moving on the flag. I must
= convince her.
And j., labored to that end with
every argument, with every insist.
!, ence. And in the vague light I noted
every detail CT her: the long lashes
: the exquisite mouth, the slender body
But it was not these visible things
. however potent. that so wholly over.
. - inc frr- hi y
we have no word, of which there is
, no material evidence, that moved
subtly from this girl into every fibel
CT me. The perennial charm of ro-
nance attended her. She came fortf
, from haze, from shadow; there clung
about her the freshness, the mystery
i. of those fairy women that the soul Of
, a man eternally longs for.
And unless 1 could persuade her
she was lost to me.
1 can not remember what l said; 4
must have been to offer what 1 had
to replace the things this disaster
had swept out. My insistence mus
have revolved about this fixed idea
for she would only shake her heaven
~ head. 1 must not bride her-sh,
l could not take a bride.
X X X
7 LOOKED up finally like a maj
i sinking in the pit, and saw, be
yond her across the terrace, q fac,
pressed. against the glass door Of tn,
! library. For a moment. the fac,
seemed unfamiliar-or was unhinge
by my emotion?-t1ere, was some,
I thing fpa in IT, soyn athipg ,ayty, o. ,
momentary controls something; tina
had no proper being in the solder
8 features; something long submerged
: trodden down, flth-covered, in a sor
: of awful effort to get on its feet.
r Then the face relaxed into its vacu.
Gus denominations, and Backmartir
r opened the door
"Oh! I say" he called to us, IF
, might have a Bible, / would read &
chapter before / turn in--it's a sori
of habit, y know"
had to turn, sharp, to conceal the
disgust in me. But Marjorie went IL
: to him. with some courteous word
, found big old family Bible on q
! shelf among the dictionaries and put
, it on his table. He was STOPPING oyel
r 1t when she came out to me.
/ She made no comment.
I And j returned to my labor of
: cursed Sisyphus. But l changed the
' tenor of 1t. If we must be equal be
fore she would listen to me. then
would make us equal. If she would
not be as well off as l was, then
would be as poor as she. I would
abandon what I had, and we would e
| 4 =,