The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Magdalen by Edgar Saltus

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Title: Mary Magdalen

Author: Edgar Saltus

Release Date: March 5, 2010 [Ebook #31510]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY MAGDALEN***

By Mr. Saltus

HISTORIA AMORIS
THE POMPS OF SATAN
IMPERIAL PURPLE
THE ANATOMY OF NEGATION
VANITY SQUARE
THE PERFUME OF EROS

MARY MAGDALEN

_A Chronicle_

_By_

EDGAR SALTUS

NEW YORK
BRENTANO'S
MCMXIX

COPYRIGHT, 1891,
BY EDGAR SALTUS.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
Transcriber's note

MARY MAGDALEN

CHAPTER I.

I.

"Three to one on Scarlet!"

Throughout the brand-new circus were the eagerness, the gesticulations,
shouts, and murmurs of an impatient throng. On a ledge above the entrance
a man stood, a strip of silk extended in his finger-tips. Beneath, on
either side, were gates. About him were series of ascending tiers,
close-packed, and brilliant with multicolored robes and parasols. The sand
of the track was very white: where the sunlight fell it had the glitter of
broken glass. In the centre was a low wall; at one end were pillars and
seven great balls of wood; at the other, seven dolphins, their tails in
the air. The uproar mounted in unequal vibrations, and stirred the pulse.
The air was heavy with odors, with the emanations of the crowd, the cloy
of myrrh. Through the exits whiffs of garlic filtered from the kitchens
below, and with them, from the exterior arcades, came t