Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/234

 and the sound of rushing winds charms me almost to insensibility.” She slipped from his arms and buried her face deep in the grass. “What magic is in this good, brown earth,” she whispered, “that makes all things grow, even love? The smell of it is like a delicious in- toxicant. What wonder that all things flourish on its bosom nourished by so fond a lover! I understand now why the ancients called it Mother. It is the mother breast that nourishes all.”

She lay flat along the earth, and extending her arms seemed to gather it in a close embrace. He stooped over her, and where her white neck showed below the hair he pressed his lips. She partly turned, and pulling the long grass over her eyes looked at him through green lashes.

“Kiss me, Perseus. Did I not tell you that T had the making of a great lover? I too might have been of them in other times. I live in them, through them, realise each tiny heart beat, feel each great throb of the soul. Oh, my Mother, how sweet you are!’ And again she buried her face close in against the earth, and he saw her lips move in exhortation or prayer.