San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-20
ToWtC6 Mhdeu BgDulde Dea1uer

was deadened. Slumped down by
the bedside, with her head against
it, her breast breathed like heavy
sleeper's.
Someone was speaking to her.
"Child, my power dwells in you,
as the flame dwells in the cup of
a lamp"
She lifted her lowered eyelids
or seemed to-and was not
astonished at what she saw,
though in the very nature of
things she should have been. A
seated woman confronted her
whose marvellous body was SUBJ
jected to changes as rapid as
play of light. Her waist were
cinctured with thin girdle of
lovely live serpents that slid and
shimmered continually. She sat
within a chair of living rock
whose high bases were curiously
sculptured. Sidonia, standing be-
fore this enthroned woman, felt
delicious.
"You have named me-" said the
woman. 81 stood with you when
you mingled the juice of my herbs
with the wine that is also mine.
All power lies between my hands
You are my child; no man shall
withstand your strength, for your
strength is drawn from me-"
Sidonia shuddered under a SEN
sation that seemed to slacken her
knees and yet flowed through her
like tide of immortal vigor.
The woman, compact of a
myriad sense-tangling, changing
beauties that throbbed like fire or
fever, assumed the proportions of
a giantess. Sidonia's sight dark
ened. AS in nightmare which is
yet more strange than unpleasant
she saw, vaguely, the sculptures
upon the base of the chair of rock
quicken to complex movements
they became a frieze of sentient
creatures. She appeared to be
sinking, but she was not afraid.
Whatever the nature of the abyss,
it was a warm darkness that en-
COHpdcScu HcI-WdIuiCI tlldu Iut
charity of christened folk.
Sidonia shivered. She straight
ened her crumpled little body.
lifting her head from the denied
bed covers. A hint of the moons
light stole through a high window
slit. 1t was deathly cold. In the
almost-darkness the girl rose up.
There was no more clenching of
hands or spasmodic movements
like those of an animal at bay. She
stripped her dark gown downward
from the shoulders, leaving her
self in her linen shift.
"Whoever you call is bound to
come to you," said shrill, I'M
human voice that spoke more with
in her than without.
81 know that" said Sidonia,
answering within herself. And
she was utterly sure.
She knew also, without turning
her face, that an enormous frog
with an old mans head squatted
on top of the wooden chest. There
was other company as well. A
young woman who had committed
suicide by drowning herself be-
cause the man she desired re-
pudiated her stood close to the
bed. Sidonia had known this
woman by sight. Scarcely a month
had elasped since her body, denied
all religious rites, had been buried
ANONYMOUSLY where two roads
crossed.
"Call-call to himw urged the
suicide softly, but with a husky
eagerness.
A something, half man, half
goat was near. 1t had pricked
ears, little horns, and its yellow
eyes were phosphorescent. These
and whatever else there was
also-were all friendly. Almost
every thing had, from the first,
been friendly to Sidonia, except
men and women.
"Call to himw whispered the
suicide, though there was no sound,
even of a whisper, in the turTet
room.
Sidonia's lips formed a name.
There, in the solitude, in the
warmthless dimness, sitting up in
the hard, narrow, ancient settle,
she spoke in silence over and over
again.
"Gervais. Gervais."
He would come to her-he must.
All power was hers. She was calm
her pulses quiet and steady. Her
(Honfinued nm pspe 10Y