Scene 0312

Scene 0312

I. Young Charmian

From Lore Master: Epicurus

"Charmian?"

No answer.

""Charmian,"" he persisted, ""won't you take it if I give it to you?""

""Who saw it first?"" she asked disdainfully.

Peter swallowed hard. ""Well maybe you did, I don't know. Anyway its yours.""

""Thank you."" And a smile as cruel as a smile could be on baby lips quivered in the corners of her mouth as she took the arrow and never realized her contemptible conduct.

And so a girl of seven begins to understand the power she has, the ease with which she can twist and turn the fate of others to her own advantage. At the age of seven she is aware of a power that is a combination of a pretty face, a soft touch, a gentle voice, and a quick mind. And oh, what lives might founder, what great deeds done, what wonders performed, what hearts drowned in tears when that pretty, girlish face is a woman's, when that gentle voice has learned to be seductive, when that soft touch is fired with sensual warmth, and that quick mind is experienced in the willy-nilly way of things.