Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/267

RV 262 (AN LU-SHAN) lands that exist only in the country beyond the moon.

Ming Huang had little of which to complain. Yang Kuei-fei lived solely for his comfort. Often she waited upon him as though she were but a servant, even going so far as to make almond cakes for him with her own hands, which made them doubly delicious. At other times, her mood changed. She dressed in vermilion silks with gold brocade. Haughtily she acted as though she were an Empress and he but a slave. In the privacy of their apartments, she ordered him about unmercifully, humiliating him to the uttermost. Then suddenly she would toss aside her elaborate costumes and, with the force of the vicious wind of autumn but the heat of a spring night, she would fling herself into his arms.

Ming Huang responded to all her humors. She was a woman of infinite variety, ever changing, ever charming, but always willing to shelter his head in the fragrance of her breasts.

"You came to the Palace," he told her in the hush of the night, "to dwell with me, but now it is I who dwell with you."

Warm and yielding, she whispered, "My joy would be complete if you would once more honor the house of Yang by taking my three sisters as concubines. Then we need never be separated."

"If that is your wish," he said, "so shall it be." RV 262 (262)