there in a flood of artificial light; and there their sun-born
shadows vanished, and three strange new shadows, twisted and
grotesque, took their places.

She continued on into the almost empty restaurant, looming dimly
beyond. He followed; the one-eyed man followed both.

The place into which they stepped was circular, centred by a waterfall
splashing over concrete rocks. In the ruffled pool goldfish glimmered,
nearly motionless, and mandarin ducks floated, preening exotic
plumage.

A wilderness of tables surrounded the pool, set for the expected
patronage of the coming evening. The girl seated herself at one of
these.

At the next table he found a place for himself, entirely unnoticed by
her. The one-eyed man took the table behind them. A waiter presented
himself to take her order; another waiter came up leisurely to attend
to him. A third served the one-eyed man. There were only a few inches
between the three tables. Yet the girl, deeply preoccupied, paid no
attention to either man, although both kept their eyes on her.

But already, under the younger man's spellbound eyes, an odd and
unforeseen thing was occurring: he gradually became aware that, almost
imperceptibly, the girl and the table where she sat, and the sleepy
waiter who was taking her orders, were slowly moving nearer to him on
a floor which was moving, too.

He had never before been in that particular restaurant, and it took
him a moment or two to realise that the floor was one of those trick
floors, the central part of which slowly revolves.

Her table stood on the revolving part of the floor, his upon fixed
terrain; and he now beheld her moving toward him, as the circle of
tables rotated on its axis, which was the waterfall and pool in the
middle of the restaurant.

A few people began to arrive--theatrical people, who are obliged to
dine early. Some took seats at tables placed upon the revolving
section of the floor, others preferred the outer circles, where he sat
in a fixed position.

Her table was already abreast of his, with only the circular crack in
the floor between them; he could easily have touched her.

As the distance began to widen between them, the girl, her gloved
hands clasped in her lap, and studying the table-cloth with unseeing
gaze, lifted her dark eyes--looked at him without seeing, and once
more gazed through him at something invisible upon which her thoughts
remained fixed--something absorbing, vital, perhaps tragic