from her window looked with half- closed,
catlike eyes upon the semi-naked, young fanatic.

She smiled, did this idle creature of luxury, as she lay there amid
the cushions on her couch, and gazed through the casement upon the
preacher in the street.

Suddenly a thought came to her.

She arose on her elbow--she called her slaves.

They clothed her in a gaudy gown, dressed her hair, and led her forth.

Salome followed the wild, weird, religious enthusiast.

She pushed through the crowd and placed herself near the man, so the
smell of her body would reach his nostrils.

His eyes ranged the swelling lines of her body.

Their eyes met.

She half-smiled and gave him that look which had snared the soul of
many another.

But he only gazed at her with passionless, judging intensity and
repeated his cry, "Repent ye. Repent ye, for the day is at hand!"

Her reply, uttered soft and low, was this: "I would kiss thy lips!"

He moved away and she reached to seize his garment, repeating, "I
would kiss thy lips--I would kiss thy lips!"

He turned aside, and forgot her, as he continued his warning cry, and
went his way.

The next day she waylaid the youth again; as he came near she suddenly
and softly stepped forth and said in that same low, purring voice, "I
would kiss thy lips!"

He repulsed her with scorn.

She threw her arms about him and sought to draw his head down near
hers.

He pushed her from him with sinewy hands, sprang as from a pestilence,
and was lost in the pressing throng.

That night she danced before Herod Antipas, and when the promise was
recalled that she should have anything she wished, she named the head
of the only man who had ever turned away from her. "The head of John
the Baptist on a charger!"

In an hour the wish was gratified.

Two eunuchs stood before Salome with a silver tray bearing its
fearsome burden.

The woman smiled--a smile of triumph, as she stepped forth with
tinkling feet.

A look of pride came over the painted face.

Her jeweled fingers reached into the blood-matted hair. She lifted the
head aloft, and the bracelets on her brown, bare arms fell to her
shoulders, making strange music. Her face pressed the face of the
dead.

In exultation she exclaimed, "I have kissed thy lips!"

-------------------------------------

He who influences the thought of his time influences
the thought of all the time that follows. And he has
ma