For
she was clothed in some strange colour that hovered between pallid
yellow and deep red, seeming to have been borrowed from the setting
sun and the rising moon. And it was all pulled forward, so that it
clung somehow or other tight to her rounded limbs, making her whole
outline from head to foot look like soft marble in the moonlit dusk,
and it was collected in front into one great heavy fold that hung
straight down like a red pillar from the very middle of her small
waist, ending just above her feet in great gold tassels, that nearly
touched the huge anklets of green jade with which her two little bare
feet were loaded, as if to help them to stand firm. And a soft broad
band of gold ran right round her just below her lovely breast, that
lay held in its gold cup like a great double billow made of the creamy
lather of the sea, prevented from escaping as it swelled up by the
delicious dam formed by the curve of her shoulders meeting the soft
bulge of the upper part of her rounded arms, which came out from each
side and seemed as it were to wave gently in the air like creeper
sprays, free and unconfined, and not like her feet, chained down, but
absolutely bare of any ornament at all. And on her hair was not a
star, but a great yellow moonstone, that shone with a dull glimmer
like a rival moon of her own, and over her left shoulder a long coil
of dark hair came out from behind her head and hung down like a
serpent, ending in a soft wisp like a yak's tail that was tied round
with yellow silk. And the only thing that she retained of what she was
before was the intoxicating charm of the upright poise of her whole
figure, which seemed to say to me as I saw it: I am the one thing
about her which she cannot possibly hide or alter, let her do what she
will.

And she stood quite still, as I gazed at her in ecstasy, lost in the
wonder of my own eyes, looking back at me with her head just a little
on one side, and her eyebrows just a very little raised, as if with
appeal, and great soft sweet caressing smiling eyes. And then, after a
while, she said, looking down: See, my feet are prisoners to-night, to
do thee honour, as their lord, and they cannot walk fast or far, but
it does not matter, as they will not be wanted, for I have a surprise
coming for thee, by and by. But as to my arms, I thought it better to
leave them without the encumbrance of any ornament at all. And she
waved them gently in the air, and a little smile stole