Page:Des Grieux, The Prelude to Teleny.djvu/131

 woman, past the canonical age. A screen however, divided the room into two compartments.

One sultry summer night, I awoke feeling very hot and feverish; parched with thirst I got up to see if I could find a glass of water. Besides the rays of the moon in her zenith, the early gloaming shed its mellow light in the room. There was no water on my night table, I erossed over on her side, to see if I could find any there. The nurse was lying on her back, her legs somewhat apart, her thighs open, her slit uplifted. All her middle parts were therefore entirely bare. In that pale amber light her skin looked as white and as smooth as newly carved ivory. I should almost have felt inclined to pass my hand over it had my eyes not fallen, at once, on the dark fleece, which covered half of her thighs and almost reached up to her navel.

I was so thoroughly astonished, that I forgot my thirst, I forgot the reason for which I had got down from my bed; I stood there for a while, staring at her with widely-opened eyes.