in the picturesque and flowery solitudes to which
their lovemaking carried them.

Moods began in which he seemed to forget Amanda altogether.

This happened first in the Certosa di Pavia whither they had gone one
afternoon from Milan. That was quite soon after they were married. They
had a bumping journey thither in a motor-car, a little doubtful if
the excursion was worth while, and they found a great amazement in
the lavish beauty and decorative wealth of that vast church and its
associated cloisters, set far away from any population as it seemed in
a flat wilderness of reedy ditches and patchy cultivation. The
distilleries and outbuildings were deserted--their white walls were
covered by one monstrously great and old wisteria in flower--the soaring
marvellous church was in possession of a knot of unattractive guides.
One of these conducted them through the painted treasures of the gold
and marble chapels; he was an elderly but animated person who evidently
found Amanda more wonderful than any church. He poured out great
accumulations of information and compliments before her. Benham dropped
behind, went astray and was presently recovered dreaming in the great
cloister. The guide showed them over two of the cells that opened
thereupon, each a delightful house for a solitary, bookish and clean,
and each with a little secret walled garden of its own. He was covertly
tipped against all regulations and departed regretfully with a beaming
dismissal from Amanda. She found Benham wondering why the Carthusians
had failed to produce anything better in the world than a liqueur. "One
might have imagined that men would have done something in this beautiful
quiet; that there would have come thought from here or will from here."

"In these dear little nests they ought to have put lovers," said Amanda.

"Oh, of course, YOU would have made the place Thelema...."

But as they went shaking and bumping back along the evil road to Milan,
he fell into a deep musing. Suddenly he said, "Work has to be done.
Because this order or that has failed, there is no reason why we should
fail. And look at those ragged children in the road ahead of us, and
those dirty women sitting in the doorways, and the foul ugliness of
these gaunt nameless towns through which we go! They are what they are,
because we are what we are--idlers, excursionists. In a world we ought
to rule....

"Amanda, we've got to get to work...."

That was his first display o