They walked singly, in twos, in threes, and in larger groups, some
trudging along leisurely, others proceeding at a hurried pace.
Some came from our hotel, others from other places, the strangers
mostly in flocks. I watched them as they sauntered or scurried
along, as they receded through the thickening gloom, as they
emerged from it into the slanting shaft of light that fell from the
pavilion, and as they vanished in its blazing doorway. I gazed at
the spectacle until it fascinated me as something weird. The
pavilion with its brightly illuminated windows was an immense
magic lamp, and the young people flocking to it so many huge
moths of a supernatural species. As I saw them disappear in the
glare of the doorway I pictured them as being burned up. I was
tempted to join the unearthly procession and to be "burned" like
the others. Then, discarding the image, I visioned men and women
of ordinary flesh and blood dancing, and I was seized with a
desire to see the sexes in mutual embrace. But I exhorted myself
that I was soon to be a married man and that it was as well to keep
out of temptation's way
Presently I saw Miss Tevkin crossing the lawn, headed for the
pavilion.
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