The Black Swans 



landscape is radiantly beautiful, but 

 give me the moonless, cloudless night 

 with all its million mysteries. I do 

 not want Libra put out of business even 

 for a night, because that is the zodi- 

 acal sign under which somebody says 

 I was born. I did not say when. 

 But it was quite long enough ago. I 

 am no astrologist, but I have sat many 

 times in that big solarium at the South 

 Shore Club, and admired that ceiling 

 decoration, even though I don't know 

 anything about the zodiacal signs. I 

 have heard it said that Libra people 

 are temperamental; that they enjoy 

 intensely and suffer correspondingly; 

 that they are mercurial; easily carried 

 up to most ecstatic heights and just 

 as easily plunged into the blackest 

 gulfs. That they are gifted (or cursed 

 maybe) with much imagination. That 

 they are apt to be idealists. That the 

 X-ray power of divining beauty hidden 

 to many other eyes is theirs. That 

 they love art in every form, whether 

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