said superciliously the examples you choosebeg your pardon said grimly forgot we had abolishedall conventionsthe first time a red patch appeared on foreheaddont expect me he said to revolutionise society on thislawn looked straight into his eyes and smiled sweetlydont he said but suppose that if you were seriousabout your anarchism that is exactly what you would dobig bulls eyes blinked suddenly like those of an angrylion and one could almost fancy that his red mane roseyou think then he said in a dangerous voice that amserious about my anarchismbeg your pardon  said not serious about my anarchism  cried with knottedfistsdear fellow said and strolled awaysurprise but with a curious pleasure he found still in his companyshe said do the people who talk like you and mybrother often mean what they say  you mean what you say now smiledyou  he askeddo you mean  asked the girl with grave eyesdear said gently there are many kinds ofsincerity and insincerity you say thank you for the saltdo you mean what you say  you say the world is rounddo you mean what you say  is true but you dont mean itsometimes a man like your brother really finds a thing he doesmean may be only a halftruth quartertruth tenthtruth butthen he says more than he meansfrom sheer force of meaning itwas looking at him from under level brows her face was graveand open and there had fallen upon it the shadow of thatunreasoning responsibility which is at the bottom of the mostfrivolous woman the maternal watch which is as old as the worldhe really an anarchist then she askedin that sense speak of replied or if you preferit in that nonsensedrew her broad brows together and said abruptlywouldnt really usebombs or that sort of thingbroke into a great laugh that seemed too large for his slightand somewhat dandified figureno he said that has to be done anonymouslyat that the corners of her own mouth broke into a smile andshe thought with a simultaneous pleasure of absurdityand of his safetystrolled with her to a seat in the corner of the garden andcontinued to pour out his opinions he was a sincere man andin spite of his superficial airs and graces at root a humble oneit is always the humble man who talks too much the proud manwatches himself too closely defended respectability withviolence and exaggeration grew passionate in his praise oftidiness and propriety the time there was a smell of lilacall round him he heard very faintly in some distant street abarrelorgan begin to play and it seemed to him that his heroicwords were moving to a tiny tune from under or beyond the worldstared and talked at the girls red hair and amused face forwhat seemed to be a few minutes and then feeling that the groupsin such a place should mix rose to his feet his astonishmenthe discovered the whole garden empty had gone long agoand he went himself with a rather hurried apology left with asense of champagne in his head which he could not afterwardsexplain the wild events which were to follow this girl had nopart at all he never saw her again until all his tale was overyet in some indescribable way she kept recurring like amotive in music through all his mad adventures afterwards and theglory of her strange hair ran like a red thread through those darkand illdrawn tapestries of the night what followed was soimprobable that it might well have been a dreamwent out into the starlit street he found it for themoment empty he realised in some odd way that the silencewas rather a living silence than a dead one outside thedoor stood a street lamp whose gleam gilded the leaves of the treethat bent out over the fence behind him a foot from thelamppost stood a figure almost as rigid and motionless as thelamppost itself tall hat and long frock coat were black theface in an abrupt shadow was almost as dark a fringe offiery hair against the light and also something aggressive in theattitude proclaimed that it was the poet had somethingof the look of a masked bravo waiting sword in hand for his foemade a sort of doubtful salute which somewhat moreformally returnedwas waiting for you said have a momentsconversationwhat asked in a sort of weak wonderstruck out with his stick at the lamppost and then at thetree this and this he cried about order and anarchyis your precious order that lean iron lamp ugly andbarren and there is anarchy rich living reproducingitselfthere is anarchy splendid in green and goldthe same replied patiently just at present you onlysee the tree by the light of the lamp wonder when you would eversee the lamp by the light of the tree after a pause he saidmay ask if you have been standing out here in the dark onlyto resume our little argumentcried out in a voice that rang down the street not stand here to resume our argument but to end it for eversilence fell again and though he understood nothinglistened instinctively for something serious began in asmooth voice and with a rather bewildering smilehe said this evening you succeeded in doing somethingrather remarkable did something to me that no man born ofwoman has ever succeeded in doing beforeremember resumed reflectively one other personsucceeded in doing it captain of a penny steamer if correctly at have irritated meam very sorry replied with gravityam afraid my fury and your insult are too shocking to be wipedout even with an apology said very calmly duelcould wipe it out struck you dead could not wipe it outis only one way by which that insult can be erased and thatway choose am going at the possible sacrifice of my life andhonour to prove to you that you were wrong in what you saidwhat saidsaid was not serious about being an anarchistare degrees of seriousness replied have neverdoubted that you were perfectly sincere in this sense that youthought what you said well worth saying that you thought aparadox might wake men up to a neglected truthstared at him steadily and painfullyin no other sense he asked you think me serious thinkme a flaneur who lets fall occasional truths do not think thatin a deeper a more deadly sense am seriousstruck his stick violently on the stones of the roadhe cried is this street serious thesedamned lanterns serious the whole caboodle seriouscomes here and talks a pack of bosh and perhaps some sense aswell but should think very little of a man who didnt keepsomething in the background of his life that was more serious thanall this talkingsomething more serious whether it was religionor only drinkwell said his face darkening you shall seesomething more serious than either drink or religionstood waiting with his usual air of mildness until opened his lipsspoke just now of having a religion it really true thatyou have onesaid with a beaming smile we are all nowmay ask you to swear by whatever gods or saints yourreligion involves that you will not reveal what am now going totell you to any son of and especially not to the policeyou swear that you will take upon yourself this awfulabnegations if you will consent to burden your soul with a vowthat you should never make and a knowledge you should never dreamabout will promise you in returnwill promise me in return inquired as the otherpausedwill promise you a very entertaining evening suddenlytook off his hatoffer he said is far too idiotic to be declined saythat a poet is always an anarchist disagree but hope at leastthat he is always a sportsman me here and now to swear asa and promise as a good comrade and a fellowartistthat will not report anything of this whatever it is to thepolice now in the name of what is itthink said with placid irrelevancy that we willcall a cabgave two long whistles and a hansom came rattling down theroad two got into it in silence gave through thetrap the address of an obscure publichouse on the bankof the river cab whisked itself away again and in it thesetwo fantastics quitted their fantastic towncab pulled up before a particularly dreary and greasy beershopinto which rapidly conducted his companion seatedthemselves in a close and dim sort of barparlour at a stainedwooden table with one wooden leg room was so small and darkthat very little could be seen of the attendant who was summonedbeyond a vague and dark impression of something bulky and beardedyou take a little supper asked politely patede foie gras is not good here but can recommend the gamereceived the remark with stolidity imagining it to be a jokethe vein of humour he said with a wellbredindifferencebring me some lobster mayonnaisehis indescribable astonishment the man only said and went away apparently to get itwill you drink resumed with the same careless yetapologetic air shall only have a crepe de menthe myself havedined the champagne can really be trusted let me start youwith a halfbottle of at leastyou said the motionless are very goodfurther attempts at conversation somewhat disorganised inthemselves were cut short finally as by a thunderbolt by theactual appearance of the lobster tasted it and found itparticularly good he suddenly began to eat with greatrapidity and appetiteme if enjoy myself rather obviously he said to dont often have the luck to have a dream like this new to me for a nightmare to lead to a lobster is commonlythe other wayare not asleep assure you said are on thecontrary close to the most actual and rousing moment of yourexistence here comes your champagne admit that there may bea slight disproportion let us say between the inner arrangementsof this excellent hotel and its simple and unpretentious exteriorthat is all our modesty are the most modest men that everlived on earthwho are we asked emptying his champagne glassis quite simple replied are the seriousanarchists in whom you do not believesaid shortly do yourselves well in drinkswe are serious about everything answered after a pause he addedin a few moments this table begins to turn round a littledont put it down to your inroads into the champagne dont wishyou to do yourself an injusticeif am not drunk am mad replied with perfectcalm but trust can behave like a gentleman in eithercondition smokesaid producing a cigarcase one ofminetook the cigar clipped the end off with a cigarcutter outof his waistcoat pocket put it in his mouth lit it slowly andlet out a long cloud of smoke is not a little to his creditthat he performed these rites with so much composure for almostbefore he had begun them the table at which he sat had begun torevolve first slowly and then rapidly as if at an insaneseancemust not mind it said its a kind of screwso said placidly a kind of screw simple thatisnext moment the smoke of his cigar which had been waveringacross the room in snaky twists went straight up as if from afactory chimney and the two with their chairs and table shotdown through the floor as if the earth had swallowed them rattling down a kind of roaring chimney as rapidly as a liftcut loose and they came with an abrupt bump to the bottom threw open a pair of doors and let in a redsubterranean light was still smoking with one leg thrownover the other and had not turned a yellow hairled him down a low vaulted passage at the end of whichwas the red light was an enormous crimson lantern nearly asbig as a fireplace fixed over a small but heavy iron door thedoor there was a sort of hatchway or grating and on this five times heavy voice with a foreign accent asked himwho he was this he gave the more or less unexpected replyheavy hinges began to move it wasobviously some kind of passwordthe doorway the passage gleamed as if it were lined with anetwork of steel a second glance saw that the glitteringpattern was really made up of ranks and ranks of rifles andrevolvers closely packed or interlockedmust ask you to forgive me all these formalities said have to be very strict heredont apologise said know your passion for law andorder and he stepped into the passage lined with the steelweapons his long fair hair and rather foppish frockcoat helooked a singularly frail and fanciful figure as he walked downthat shining avenue of deathpassed through several such passages and came out at lastinto a queer steel chamber with curved walls almost spherical inshape but presenting with its tiers of benches something of theappearance of a scientific lecturetheatre were no rifles orpistols in this apartment but round the walls of it were hung moredubious and dreadful shapes things that looked like the bulbs ofiron plants or the eggs of iron birds were bombs and thevery room itself seemed like the inside of a bomb knocked hiscigar ash off against the wall and went innow my dear said throwing himself in anexpansive manner on the bench under the largest bomb now we arequite cosy so let us talk properly no human words can giveyou any notion of why brought you here was one of those quitearbitrary emotions like jumping off a cliff or falling in loveit to say that you were an inexpressibly irritating fellowand to do you justice you are still would break twenty oathsof secrecy for the pleasure of taking you down a peg way youhave of lighting a cigar would make a priest break the seal ofconfession you said that you were quite certain was not aserious anarchist this place strike you as being seriousdoes seem to have a moral under all its gaiety assentedbut may ask you two questions need not fear to giveme information because as you remember you very wisely extortedfrom me a promise not to tell the police a promise shallcertainly keep it is in mere curiosity that make my queriesof all what is it really all about is it you objectto want to abolish 