"
"Then I know what kind of ankle bone _she_ had," said Marguerite,
bitter for revenge on Lady Bluefields.
"_Ye clothes play a greate part in ye arte of courtinge_."
Marguerite turned the leaf; but she found that the other pages on
the theme were too thumbed and faint to be legible.
She looked into the subject of "Hands": learning where the palms
should be turned up and when turned down; the meaning of a crooked
forefinger, and of full moons rising on the horizons of the finger
nails; why women with freckled hands should court bachelors. Also
how the feet, if of such and such sizes and configurations, must be
kept as "_ye two dead secrets_." Similarly how dimples must be
born and not made--with a caution against "_ye dimple under ye
nose_" (reference to "Big Booke"--well worth the money, etc.).
When she reached the subject of the kiss, Marguerite thought
guiltily of the library steps.
"_Ye kiss is ye last and ye greatest act in all ye lovely arte of
courtinge. Ye eyes, ye hair, ye feet, ye dimple, ye whole trunk,
are of no account if they do not lead up to ye kiss. There are two
kinds of ye kiss: ye kiss that ye give and ye kiss that ye take.
Ye kiss that ye take is ye one ye want. Ye woman often wishes to
give ye man one but cannot; and ye man often wishes to take one (or
more) from ye woman but cannot; and between her not being able to
give and his not being able to take, there is suffering enough in
this ill-begotten and ill-sorted world.
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