I sprang to my feet in alarm. “Was it not your intention to see me again?” I asked.
“I encounter new faces daily,” she answered. “They sail from my vision as the clouds overhead. You have interested me. I have mentioned the secret—my daring secret—from you I can learn much that is important. Yes, I must see you again.”
“I am to teach you the lost science,” I murmured, going close; “you have not forgotten?”
She glanced vaguely, then suddenly leaning toward me laughed softly, while her whisper thrilled. “Already I am learning the art of Love—it begins with attraction, sympathy; ends with ennui. Should the student survive these three emotions he has achieved the enthralling, submerging flame of desire. Each atom of humanity is a world in itself, a shell covering of volcanic emotions; passion is the eruption, fierce, unwholesome, fleeting, leaving a wide swath of cinderous reflections tossed by the violent current of zephyric reason and gradually uplifted to the celestial heights of serenity, repose. Virgillius, we shall study together, for I must know all things. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I think I do,” I told her; “and you have naught to learn except experience. This I shall compel you to realize, thereby giving you a dim perception of heaven and hell.”
With half-closed eyes she smiled. “We have talked hours, Virgillius, and said nothing. I can tarry with you no longer; on the morrow we shall meet again.”
“I have been very happy,” I whispered.
“Happy!” she cried incredulously. “Since creation the Centauris have been searching for happiness and believe when all mysteries are solved the chimera is theirs.”
“My happiness is with you, Centauri!” I cried passionately. “I love you! I love you!”
She shook her head as though I was a spoiled child, then with a sweet, insinuating smile, departed. Rapturously I feasted my eyes upon her as she joined the guests, she the radiant, dazzling center of a bevy of bewitching beauties. I was consumed with ardent longings and flashed dangerous glances at Her Sereneness, but gay, exhilarating music wafting in from the gardens roused me from languorous meditations, and out of the dim, heavy-odored retreat into the brilliant, chameleon-glinting hall, scintillating with mirth and wit.