A CONSUMMATION.

They walked together through London to his rooms, at the
tne hour when the heavens light up and the streets.

Very young they were, and there were very many lamps, and
they all looked like stars.

(Swift is the hour of Dione, wayward as a panther under the
moon.)

They ran up the steps to his house, and the girl had a moment
to wonder what manner of woman she would be when she came down again.

In his room she crouched in a deep chair, remote and infinitely
sweet.

(Cruel and tender is the hour of Dione, like the little crooked
sword of the moon.)

"Have you thought" he said?

"I have not" she answered him, and his eyes clouded over
darker than the summer night.

Sweet was her body and delectable, and their kisses snook
through them like a storm through an empty house.

(Dione Herself who fulfilleth all stood knocking at the door of her soul.)

Then she sought to run away, and fear swept over her as a races
cloud sweeps over the moon.

But before the door he stood passionate, and because he was
not invincible, she stayed.

On the wall hung the likeness of the Mother of God, and he
turned the picture to the wall.

Then she was very angry that either of them could feel shame
before the simplicity of earth and heaven.

(It may happen that we shall find but one Goddess, Our Lady
of the Seven Sorrows and Our Lady of the Sea.)

So, his purpose served, he turned the picture back, and the shadow
left his eyes more luminous than any of the stars.

And she took a book, and read to him in a low voice words of
money and fire.

She cried also, in tears like the last dew of the virginity
of night before the sun comes, and all life reneweth itself upon the
breast of the earth.

"If I come back in a little time" he said, "I shall not find
you gone from here?"

"I do not promise" she said. So he went out.

Then she sprang like a young cat across to the mirror, and
stripped her slenderness and loosened her hair.

And he returned very swiftly.

She was say as any babe, and ran away and hid herself in his bed,
covering herself from her straight rosy feet to her hair like a
dark mist of the winter mills.

(Aphrodite from the niga peak of Hymettos who shall say if Tay
hair be dark or golden at the dawn?)

Then he uncovered her hair, no more than her hair, and went away
softly about the room singing in his own language as he too stripped
to his ultimate beauty, and came and lay down beside her,

Mouth to mouth they lay, breast to breast, thigh to thigh,
feet to feet.

Then she was not shy any more.

They became yet closer, his body became part of hers, and her
body of his.

Slowly he uncovered her body, kissing her breasts, and adoring
her slim shape.

She had never seen a man's body stripped before.
Not wholly was it a joy to her as yet, but in her wisdom she
accepted each hour for its own perfection.

Afterwards they lit cigarettes, and he told her of an old
fierce stained love.....

(Into dark and piteous ways hast Thou led us O Our Lady for
the accomplishing of Thy purpose)

But she had recreated for him all splendid things.

And their bodies became part of each other's once more.

Then at dawn they slept.

at dawn
(The flying moon told this tale/to a lingering star.)