her own dream in this, that her soft round
bosom was rising and falling like an agitated wave, as if she had been
running very fast with nimble feet, that had stopped short, at the
sight of me. And she held her pretty head, with appealing grace, just
a very little on one side, looking at me with great sweet eyes, and
lips that smiled, half-open, as if to let her breathe, saying as it
were: I know that I am very guilty, and yet I am absolutely sure to be
forgiven, since you cannot find it in your heart to scold. And somehow
or other, there came from every part of her as it were the delicious
fragrance of an extreme desire to oblige and please, that exactly
corresponded with the excessive gentleness of the voice that had just
spoken; and yet it was mixed in some inexplicable way with a very
faint suggestion of authority, as though to say: All will willingly
obey me; but those who will not, must. And one hand hung down by her
side, holding a lute by a yellow string: while the other was playing
with the beads of a necklace of great pearls, that lay on the ocean of
her surging breast, so that it was carried up and down on its wave.
And she looked, as she stood before me, like a faultless feminine
incarnation of the essence of a bosom friend, turned into an
instrument of supernatural seduction by the infusion of the
intoxication of the other sex, and seeming as it were to say: How much
dearer is a dear friend, that looks at thee with a woman's eyes!

And I stood for a single instant, looking, with a soul that struggled
to leave me, as if it had recognised at once, the moment it caught
sight of her, whose claim it should obey. And I made a step towards
her, stretching out both my hands: and all at once, I uttered a sharp
cry, and fell at her feet in a swoon.

VIII

And when I came back to myself, I opened my eyes, and saw her,
standing close beside me, bending over towards me, and watching me
with eyes that were full of an expression that was half anxiety and
half compassion. And as I rose to my feet, in confusion, she said
quietly: Nay, it would be better for thee to sit still, for a little
while, until thou art recovered. Art thou ill, or what is the matter
with thee? And I looked at her, making as it were sure of her being
really there, and I said with emotion: Nay, on the contrary, I am
very well indeed, now that I find thee still here, as I never hoped to
see thee. For I was terribly afraid, lest I should lose thee