CHAPTER XVI
IN WHICH I BEGIN TO APPRECIATE THE VIRTUES OF THE CHASTE GODDESS
Assuredly never were the nostrils of mortal youth saluted with odour
more inspiring and altogether more delectable than that which, wooing
me from the drowsy arms of Morpheus, awoke me to growing consciousness
of three several things, namely: light, movement and an
extraordinarily poignant hunger.
Being awake, I firstly sniffed of this most appetising aroma, then
lifting my head espied the girl busily combing her long hair before
that small mirror I have mentioned. Now although the place was
illumined by no more than a farthing dip, yet this was sufficient to
wake many fugitive gleams and coppery lights in these long, rippling
tresses, so that I lay for some time content to watch as she combed
with smooth-sweeping motions of arm and wrist; but suddenly this arm
grew still and I knew that she was viewing me through this silky
curtain as it hung.
"Well?" she demanded suddenly, and putting back the hair from her
face, stood looking down at me with her sombre, half-sullen gaze.
"Well?" said I, sitting up. And now, beholding her face framed thus in
her glossy tresses, the wide, low brow, the deep eyes, the delicate
modelling of nose and chin, the vivid lips, I realised that she was
beautiful--beautiful as any fabled goddess or dryad; and what with
this, the rippling splendour of her hair that covered her like a
garment, the deep silence of this remote solitude, there rushed upon
me a sense of such intimacy that I caught my breath and averted my
gaze instinctively, awed by, yet delighting in, this sudden
consciousness of her beauty.
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