Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/129

 dear to my heart".

"At last we were at a brilliant ball, and in the same quadrille … We came to the figure "Trenis", where the men, so to say, embrace; in order to turn about in a circle, while the ladies on their side do the same. I would have said something different to him; instead, I could only murmur.—"This is the best moment of the dance"! He answered, "Be still, be still, dear fellow!—we will get away from here at once! "I could hardly wait till the quadrille ended. Ceremoniously I left my glittering partner. What was Hecuba to me? I hurried to the dressing-rooms, for my fur-coat. He came upon my heels and put on his cloak. We left the vestibule, got into the same carriage, and fell into each other's arms. Neither of us could utter a word. At last God had given me a friend to my soul!… He and I have lived together now more than three years, like a married pair. We have never had one quarrel. Rudolf is somewhat jealous, but is kindness and thoughtfulness itself. When he goes to the annual military maneuvers, I follow him; if he should be stationed elsewhere I shall go with him to the end of the world—to the Esquimaux!… We are happy without misgivings or remorse. There is a happiness that knows no end".

The warmth of feeling for the Uranian on the part of his unsuspecting dionistic friend has been mentioned. "Jack, I could not care for you more if you were a woman!" lightly exclaims some affectionate Dionian—"though, thank God, you are not one!" He wrings the hand of the silent Jack, whose heart is pierced by the bitter irony of that "Thank God, you are not one!" from the lips of the man he loves with a woman's heart, under the mask of a male friendship. Another painful aspect of an "undeclared" intimacy between two friends can long-continue with