Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/445

 may have his admiration and intimacy, especially if "good women." For his sexual relief, woman is an irony. Could the female harlot serve him sexually as she serves so many millions of men, easy would be his choice. But occidental Europe in general does not permit brothels of males, nor allow the boy-harlot too openly and scandalously to racoler.

Yet now and then, as the sexually-excited Uranian continues his stroll, he meets a furtive, keen look from a man or a youth who passes. It is the mysterious Anblick of the Uranian fraternity; that psychic-sexual interrogation, that signal and challenge ever where current and understood among homosexuals. It is true that homosexuality of an Uranian is not met in his glance unless he means it to be so met. Many homosexuals sedulously avoid it. Part of the protective "Mask" is the watch against such eloquence of a mere exchange of looks. True also is it that the "Look" in part is explained by the fact that the Uranian eye, especially in the higher type, is almost always singularly luminous, and that its penetrating gaze can be disturbingly direct. But the 'homosexual glance' is not mere fiction.

Before a shop-window, or perhaps at a bench in a park, halts the Uranian. Soon another stroller, loitering in professional alertness, walks toward him—catches his eye expressively and stands or sits near him. The newcomer may be a boy of sixteen or eighteen, or much more an adult good-looking or plain; likely not really well-dressed; and artificial aids improve (?) his physique. He may have a certain fausse élégance—cheap jewellery and a gaudy cravat. A conversation is begun. Little by little, it slips on toward confidentialities—the discomforts of living and of travelling alone, the effects of the evening air, the quiet of the place, the amusements of the town. The talk grows indistinctly erotic as the other man becomes surer that