Page:Des Grieux, The Prelude to Teleny.djvu/25

 Is it a wonder then that his whole body was convulsed, that his prickle stood hard and turgid, tingling with life replete with blood?

All at once he felt as if he had become androgynous, and like an hermaphrodite, he seemed to receive every thrust that was given, and to thrust himself at the same time. He shuddered with the heat of desire, his nerves were strained to a painful pitch and his joints almost relaxed with too much bliss.

He again opened his eyes to the dazzling sun light, and he could hardly understand who, or where, he was.

He remembered again how he had raved that night, how that ungovernable passion had in its intensity turned into pain.

His brain was burning, his heart was bursting; he had tottered like a drunken man and laid himself down upon the naked ground. As he had lain quivering spasmodically, he seemed to feel the lap of mother earth palpitating under him, just as the husband feels the womb of his wife, when big with child, jerking with an inward motion.

Now, lying on his scanty mat, thinking over