Joyces' Portrait, Chapter IV
He was alone. He was unheeded, happy and near to the wild heart oflife. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid awaste of wild air and brackish waters and the sea-harvest of shells andtangle and veiled grey sunlight and gayclad lightclad figures ofchildren and girls and voices childish and girlish in the air.
A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out tosea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of astrange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicateas a crane's and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed hadfashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller andsoft-hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the whitefringes of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Herslate-blue skirts were kilted boldly about her waist and dovetailedbehind her. Her bosom was as a bird's, soft and slight, slight and softas the breast of some dark-plumaged dove. But her long fair hair wasgirlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face.
She was alone and still, gazing out to sea; and when she felt hispresence and the worship of his eyes her eyes turned to him in quietsufferance of his gaze, without shame or wantonness. Long, long shesuffered his gaze and then quietly withdrew her eyes from his and bentthem towards the stream, gently stirring the water with her foot hitherand thither. The first faint noise of gently moving water broke thesilence, low and faint and whispering, faint as the bells of sleep;hither and thither, hither and thither; and a faint flame trembled onher cheek.
--Heavenly God! cried Stephen's soul, in an outburst of profane joy.
He turned away from her suddenly and set off across the strand. His cheeks were aflame; his body was aglow; his limbs were trembling. On and on and on and on he strode, far out over the sands, singing wildlyto the sea, crying to greet the advent of the life that had cried to him.
Her image had passed into his soul for ever and no word had broken theholy silence of his ecstasy. Her eyes had called him and his soul hadleaped at the call. To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreatelife out of life! A wild angel had appeared to him, the angel of mortalyouth and beauty, an envoy from the fair courts of life, to throw openbefore him in an instant of ecstasy the gates of all the ways of errorand glory. On and on and on and on!
A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out tosea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of astrange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicateas a crane's and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed hadfashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller andsoft-hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the whitefringes of her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Herslate-blue skirts were kilted boldly about her waist and dovetailedbehind her. Her bosom was as a bird's, soft and slight, slight and softas the breast of some dark-plumaged dove. But her long fair hair wasgirlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal beauty, her face.
She was alone and still, gazing out to sea; and when she felt hispresence and the worship of his eyes her eyes turned to him in quietsufferance of his gaze, without shame or wantonness. Long, long shesuffered his gaze and then quietly withdrew her eyes from his and bentthem towards the stream, gently stirring the water with her foot hitherand thither. The first faint noise of gently moving water broke thesilence, low and faint and whispering, faint as the bells of sleep;hither and thither, hither and thither; and a faint flame trembled onher cheek.
--Heavenly God! cried Stephen's soul, in an outburst of profane joy.
He turned away from her suddenly and set off across the strand. His cheeks were aflame; his body was aglow; his limbs were trembling. On and on and on and on he strode, far out over the sands, singing wildlyto the sea, crying to greet the advent of the life that had cried to him.
Her image had passed into his soul for ever and no word had broken theholy silence of his ecstasy. Her eyes had called him and his soul hadleaped at the call. To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreatelife out of life! A wild angel had appeared to him, the angel of mortalyouth and beauty, an envoy from the fair courts of life, to throw openbefore him in an instant of ecstasy the gates of all the ways of errorand glory. On and on and on and on!
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