Salome followed the wild, weird, religious enthusiast.
She pushed through the crowd and placed herself near the man, so the smell of her body would reach his nostrils.
His eyes ranged the swelling lines of her body.
Their eyes met.
She half-smiled and gave him that look which had snared the soul of many another.
But he only gazed at her with passionless, judging intensity and repeated his cry, “Repent ye. Repent ye, for the day is at hand!”
Her reply, uttered soft and low, was this: “I would kiss thy lips!”
He moved away and she reached to seize his garment, repeating, “I would kiss thy lips—I would kiss thy lips!”
He turned aside, and forgot her, as he continued his warning cry, and went his way.
The next day she waylaid the youth again; as he came near she suddenly and softly stepped forth and said in that same low, purring voice, “I would kiss thy lips!”