ng
again at the sky, still black as ink, and all the stars as red as drops
of blood.

Suddenly he felt a certain consciousness that he was not alone, and he
closed his eyes.... Yes, somebody was near him. It was a woman!...

It was a woman white as the clouds, white as the sail, white as the
foam. Her sea-green tresses were adorned with pearls and phosphorescent
corals; her proud smile was that of a goddess, in keeping with the
majesty of her diadem.

She stretched her pearly arms around him, pressing him close against
her life-giving and eternally virginal bosom. A dense and greenish
atmosphere was giving her whiteness a reflection like that of the light
of the caves of the sea....

Her pale mouth then pressed against the sailor's, making him feel as
though all the light of this white apparition had liquefied and was
passing into his body by means of her impelling kiss.

He could no longer see, he could no longer speak.

His eyes had closed, never to open again; a bitter river of salt was
flowing down his throat.

Nevertheless he continued looking at her,--more luminous, pressed
closer and closer,--with a sad expression of love in his glassy
eyes.... And thus he went down and down the infinite levels of the
abyss, inert, and without volition, while a voice within him was
crying, as though just recognizing her:

"_Amphitrite!_... _Amphitrite!_"

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's Mare Nostrum (Our Sea), by Vicente Blasco Ibanez

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