THE FEMININE VIEWPOINT

by and about women

Pirouette

by

gabrielle ganelle

The

he fellows knew nothing much about her except that she knew how to mix the drinks; make them feel at home and smoke her red pipe with a look on her face that made them envy her obvious pleasure in it.

"What do you think of l'amour, Ren, think there's anything in it?" one of the newer, more brazen fellows put the subject to her. Apparently no one had spoken to him about the subject being touchy to Ren. The room blushed with silence.

She pulled on her pipe as though not to have noticed the collective embarrassment. "The heart," she said, and smiled, "the heart can be functioned according to the will if the will is not malleable or susceptible."

Here was a story brewing. The fellows came around her, three sitting on the floor; the Young Man and his friend taking two chairs beside her. "That ain't my conviction," she said, "it was the theory of a man I knew years ago when I was water boy in the circus." She chuckled, "I could do more work barefoot than big men with boots on."

"Tell us something about this here fellow," the Young Man said, "tell us about this curious theory of his. What'd he do in the circus? Why was he there?"

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