there ... I put my arms about her plump legs ... I was
almost fainting....

After a while she took me by the hair with both hands. She slowly bent
my head back as I knelt. Leaning over, she kissed deliberately, deeply
into my mouth ... then, gazing into my eyes with a puzzled expression,
as I relaxed to her--almost like something inanimate....

"Why, you dear boy, I believe you're innocent like a child. And yet you
know so much about books ... and you're so wise, too!"

As she spoke she pushed back my mad hands from their clutching and
reaching. She held both of them in hers, and closed them in against her
half-uncovered, full breasts, pressing them there.

"Do you mean to tell me that you've never gone out with the boys for a
good time?... how old are you?"

I told her I was just sixteen.

"Do you think I'm ... I'm too young?" I asked.

"I feel as if I was your mother ... and I'm not much over twenty ... but
do sit up on a chair, dear!"

She stood on her feet, shook out her dress, smiled curiously, and
started out of the room. I was up and after her, my arms around her
waist, desperate. She slid around in my arms, laughing quietly to
herself till the back of her head was against my mouth. I kissed and
kissed the top of her head. Then she turned slowly to face me, pressing
all the contours of her body into me ... she crushed her bosom to mine.
Already I was quite tall; and she was stocky and short ... she lifted
her face up to me, a curious kindling light in her eyes ... of a
phosphorescent, greenish lustre, like those chance gleams in a cat's
eyes you catch at night....

She took my little finger and deliberately bit it ... then she leaned
away from my seeking mouth, my convulsive arms....

"You want too much, all at once," she said, and, whirling about broke
away....

With the table between me and her....

"Wouldn't you like a little beer, and some sandwiches? I have some in
the ice box.... _Do_ let's have some beer and sandwiches."

I assented, though hating the bitter taste of beer, and hungry for her
instead of sandwiches. And soon we were sitting down calmly at the
table, or rather, she was sitting down calmly ... baffled, I pretended
to be calm.

As she rose for something or other, I sprang around the table and caught
her close to me once more, marvelling, at the same time, at my loss of
shyness, my new-found audacity. Again she snuggled in close to me, her
flesh like a warm, palpitating cushio