omes very rich, full of
color._

_The figure itself is a flame, an exaggerated symbol; the hair a flame;
the wings, deep red or purple, stand out against the curtains in a
contrasting or almost clashing shade of purple. The tunic, again a rich
purple or crimson, falls almost to the knees. The knees are bare; the
sandals elaborately strapped over and over. The curtain seems a rich
purple cloud, the figure, still brighter, like a flamboyant bird, half
emerged in the sunset._

_Love pauses just outside the bride's door with his gift, a tuft of
black-purple cyclamen. He sings to the accompaniment of wood-winds, in a
rich, resonant voice:_

The crimson cover of her bed
Is not so rich, nor so deeply bled
The purple-fish that dyed it red,
As when in a hot sheltered glen
There flowered these stalks of cyclamen:

(Purple with honey-points
Of horns for petals;
Sweet and dark and crisp,
As fragrant as her maiden kiss.)

There with his honey-seeking lips
The bee clings close and warmly sips,
And seeks with honey-thighs to sway
And drink the very flower away.

(Ah, stern the petals drawing back;
Ah rare, ah virginal her breath!)

Crimson, with honey-seeking lips,
The sun lies hot across his back,
The gold is decked across his wings.
Quivering he sways and quivering clings
(Ah, rare her shoulders drawing back!)
One moment, then the plunderer slips
Between the purple flower-lips.

_Love passes out with a crash of cymbals. There is a momentary pause and
the music falls into its calm, wave-like rhythm._

_A band of boys passes before the curtain. They pass from side to side,
crossing and re-crossing; but their figures never confuse one another,
the outlines are never blurred. They stand out against the curtain with
symbolic gesture, stooping as if to gather up the wreaths, or swaying
with long stiff branch as if to sweep the fallen petals from the
floor._

_There is no marked melody from the instruments, but the boys' voices,
humming lightly as they enter, gradually evolve a little dance song.
There are no words but the lilt up and down of the boys' tenor voices._

_Then, as if they had finished the task of gathering up the wreaths and
sweeping the petals, they stand in groups of two before the pillars
where the torches have been placed. They lift the torches from the
brackets. They hold them aloft between them, one torch to eac