The Streets of Ascalon. Chambers Robert William
Byzantine dancer laughed and shook her head till all the golden metal on her was set chiming.
He said, still on one knee at her feet:
"Exquisite phantom of an Empire dead, from what emblazoned sarcophagus have you danced forth across our modern oceans to bewitch the Philistia of to-day? Who clothed you in scarlet delicately? Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel – "
"You court me with Scripture as smoothly as Heaven's great Enemy," she said – "and to your own ends, as does he. Are you leagued with him, O agile and intrusive Harlequin, to steal away my peace of mind?"
Lithely, silently he leaped up to the balustrade and, gathering his ankles under him, squatted there, cross-legged, peering sideways at her through the slanting eye-holes.
"If that screen behind you gives way," she warned him, "you will have accomplished your last harlequinade."
He glanced coolly over his shoulder:
"How far is it to the floor below, do you suppose?"
"Far enough to make a good harlequin out of a live one," she said… "Please be careful; I really mean it."
"Child," he said solemnly, "do you suppose that I mind falling a hundred feet or so on my head? I've already fallen infinitely farther than that this evening."
"And it didn't kill you?" she exclaimed, clasping her hands, dramatically.
"No. Because our destiny must first be accomplished before I die."
"Ours?"
"Yours and mine, pretty dancer! I've already fulfilled my destiny by falling in love with you at first sight. That was a long fall, wasn't it?"
"Very. Am I to fulfil mine in a similar manner?"
"You are."
"Will it – kill me, do you think?"
"I don't think so. Try it."
"Will it hurt? – this terrible fall? And how far must I descend to fall in love with you?"
"Sometimes falling in love does hurt," he said gravely, "when the fall is a long one."
"Is this to be a long one?"
"You may think so."
"Then I decline to tumble. Please go somewhere about your business, Master Harlequin. I'm inclined to like you."
"Dancer, my life's business is wherever you happen to be."
"Why are you so sure?"
"Magic," he said seriously. "I deal in it."
"Wonderful! Your accomplishments overwhelm me. Perhaps, through the aid of magic, you can even tell me who I am!"
"I think I can."
"Is that another threat of magic?"
"It's a bet, too, if you like."
"Are you offering to bet me that, before I unmask, you will be able to discover who I am?"
"Yes. Will you make it a wager?" She stood, silent, irresolute, cautious but curious; then:
"Do you mean that you can find out who I am? Now? Here in this balcony?"
"Certainly."
"That is sheer nonsense," she said with decision. "I'll bet you anything you like."
"What stakes?"
"Why there's nothing to bet except the usual, is there?"
"You mean flowers, gloves, stockings, bon-bons?"
"Yes."
The Harlequin, smiling at her askance, drew from the hilt of his lathe-sword a fresh cigarette, lighted it, looked across at the level chandelier, and sent a ring of smoke toward the twinkling wilderness of prisms hanging in mid-air.
"Let's be original or perish," he said. "I'll bet you a day out of my life against a day out of yours that I discover who you are in ten minutes."
"I won't accept such a silly wager! What would you do with me for a day?"
The Harlequin bent his masked head. Over his body the lozenges of scarlet and gold slid crinkling as though with suppressed and serpentine mirth.
"What are you laughing at?" she demanded half vexed, half amused.
"Your fears, pretty dancer."
"I am not afraid!"
"Very well. Prove it! I have offered to bet you a day out of my life that I'll tell you who you are. Are you afraid to wager a day out of yours that I can't do it?"
She shook her head so that the burnished locks clustered against her cheeks, and all over her slim figure the jingling gold rang melodiously.
"I haven't long to live," she observed. "A day out of life is too much to risk."
"Why don't you think that you have long to live?"
"I haven't. I know it."
"How do you know?"
"I just know… Besides, I don't wish to live very long."
"You don't wish to live long?"
"Only as long as I'm young enough to be forgetful. Old age is a horror – in some cases. I don't desire ever to be forty. After forty they say one lives on memory. I don't wish to."
Through the slits of his mask his curious eyes watched her steadily.
"You're not yet twenty-four," he said.
"Not quite. That is a good guess, Harlequin."
"And you don't want to live to be old?"
"No, I don't wish to."
"But you are rather keen on living while you're young."
"I've never thought much about it. If I live, it's all right; if I die, I don't think I'll mind it… I'm sure I shouldn't."
Her cigarette had gone out. She tossed it aside and daintily consented to exchange cigarettes with him, offering her little gold case.
"You're carefully inspecting my initials, aren't you?" she observed, amused. "But that monogram will not help you, Master Harlequin."
"Marriage alters only the final initial. Are you, by any unhappy chance – "
"That's for you to find out! I didn't say I was! I believe you are making me tell you things!"
She threw back the lustrous hair that shadowed her cheeks and leaned forward, her shadowed eyes fixed intently upon him through the apertures of her golden mask.
"I'm beginning to wonder uneasily who you may be, Monsieur Harlequin! You alarm me a little."
"Aha!" he said. "I've told you I deal in magic! That you don't know who I am, even after that confession, makes me reasonably certain who you are."
"You're trying to scare me," she said, disdainfully.
"I'll do it, yet."
"I wonder."
"You'll wonder more than ever in a few moments… I'm going to tell you who you are. But first of all I want you to fix the forfeit – "
"Why – I don't know… What do you want of me?" she asked, mockingly.
"Whatever you care to risk."
"Then you'll have to name it. Because I don't particularly care to offer you anything… And please hasten – I'll be missed presently – "
"Won't you bet one day out of your life?"
"No, I won't. I told you I wouldn't."
"Then – one hour. Just a single hour?"
"An hour?"
"Yes, sixty minutes, payable on demand: If I win, you will place at my disposal one entire hour out of your life. Will you dare that much, pretty dancer?"
She laughed, looked up at him; then readjusting her mask, she nodded disdainfully. "Because," she observed, "it is quite impossible for you ever to guess who