shall simply
die of my own accord, long before morning, of disappointment and
despair. And so I went on very slowly, making absolutely no noise,
like a Shabara stalking a wild elephant in the forest, dying of
expectation, and yet not daring to make haste, for fear of losing all:
until at last, after a very long time, I came to the terrace by the
pool once more. And then I looked, and suddenly I caught sight of her,
standing alone, like a pillar, on the very verge of the terrace steps.

And I stopped short in the shadow of a tree, to watch her for a little
and master my emotion, holding my breath, and lost, not only in the
ecstasy of being close to her again, but in sheer admiration of the
wonder that I saw. For she was dressed as it seemed all in silver
gauze, looking ashy pale in the moonlight, and she was standing
absolutely straight up, with her two hands clasped behind her head,
turning half towards me, so that I could just see her dark hair
between her two bent arms, lit up not by a star, but a diadem like a
young moon, that shone all yellow as if made by a row of topaz suns,
so that she looked like a feminine incarnation of the Moony-crested
god, smeared with silver sheen instead of ashes. And as she stood
still with her two feet close together, gazing at the pool, with her
head leaning a little back against the pillow of her hands, alone in
the very middle of the terrace on the very edge of its top step, with
nothing but the dusk for her background, resembling a great jar, her
solitary silent figure, rising from its narrow base into lustrous
moonlit curves that ended in the tall bosses of her breast, spread
wide by her opened arms, stood out in a vision of exact and perfect
balance, so marvellously lovely, that as I gazed at it, remembering
how I held it in my arms, unable to contain my agitation, I uttered a
deep sigh.

And instantly, she spoiled the picture, by changing her position, and
looking straight towards me. And not being able to see me clearly by
reason of the deep shadow that obscured me, she came back along the
terrace in my direction, walking exactly as she did before, with the
same intoxicating straightness of carriage, and the same rapid and
undulating step, till I could have laughed aloud for very joy to see
her coming to me, like the desire of my own heart incarnate in her
round and graceful form. And as she reached me, she said, with exactly
the same low and sweet and gentle voice that I was