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An Inner Circle of Associates.

or to blackmail me. These young men had never heard of this kind of blackmail.

After revealing who I was, I solemnly put the following questions, to all of which he answered in the affirmative, although never meaning to keep his word:

"Will you place me higher in your regard than any of your pals, seeing I am to you as a wife?

"Do you realize that you and I are united by a closer bond than that which unites you to your most intimate chums and pals?

"Will you then confide to me your secrets as to no one else in the world, and also share all my secrets?

"Will you regard our association as not merely for sensuous enjoyment, but also for close friendship, and for mutual help in the trials of life?"

Thus was cemented an androgyne's marriage bond. My purpose was to draw him away from his environment, and bring him up to my own social level, but my efforts met with complete failure.

Though having had in my career as a fairie about eight hundred intimates, I have had less than a score who formed an inner circle and whom I regarded as "husbands" par excellence. I only had one of them at a time, and our relations were long-continued. In the case of nearly every one of them, if it had been a matter dependent on my will, he would have been my life partner. But circumstances beyond my control brought a change on an average once a year. As a fairie, however, I was not satisfied with monandry. I sometimes applied the term " husband " playfully to my ordinary intimates.