Page:The plumed serpent - 1926.djvu/203
And she laid her hand caressively on Kate’s arm, then rose to hurry away to the servants.
Cipriano had taken out his cigarette case. He offered it to Kate.
“Shall I take one?” she said. “It is my vice.”
“Do take one,” he said. “It isn’t good, to be perfect.”
“It isn’t, is it? “she laughed, puffing her cigarette.
“Now would you call it peace?” he asked with incomprehensible irony.
“Why?” she cried.
“Why do white people always want peace?” he asked.
“Surely peace is natural! Don’t all people want it? Don’t you?”
“Peace is only the rest after war,” he said. “So it is not more natural than fighting: perhaps not so natural.”
“No, but there is another peace: the peace that passes all understanding. Don’t you know that?”
“I don’t think I do,” he said.
“What a pity!” she cried.
“Ah!” he said. “You want to teach me! But to me it is different. Each man has two spirits in him. The one is like the early morning in the time of rain, very quiet, and sweet, moist, no?—with the mocking-bird singing, and birds flying about, very fresh. And the other is like the dry season, the steady, strong hot light of the day, which seems as if it will never change.”
“But you like the first better,” she cried.
“I don’t know!” he replied. “The other lasts longer.”
“I am sure you like the fresh morning better,” she said.
“I don’t know! I don’t know!” He smiled a crumpled sort of smile, and she could tell he really did not know. “In the first time, you can feel the flowers on their stem, the stem very strong and full of sap, no?—and the flower opening on top like a face that has the perfume of desire. And a woman might be like that.—But this passes, and the sun begins to shine very strong, very hot, no? Then everything inside a man changes, goes dark, no! And the flowers crumple up, and the breast of a man becomes like a steel mirror. And he is all darkness inside, coiling and uncoiling like a snake. All the flowers withered up on shrunk stems, no? And then women don’t exist for a man. They disappear like the flowers.” .