Now, we then to eat and to drink, and the Maid to see me unto comfort in
all things, and my bandages all right; and she then to make that she
have on her footgear and her hair to be bound; but indeed I bid her that
she to dare do this thing, when that she to know how I did delight that
her little feet be bare to mine eyes, and her hair most lovely upon her
shoulders; and she to be very happy that I so to have an utter pleasure
in her dear beauties, and did sit beside me again, and set her feet very
sly where they did be anigh to my hand; for she to know that she did be
Mine Own, and I to be her Master, and she to have joy that she to have
to render her beauty unto me; for she did be that true complement unto
me that the heart of a man doth ache for eternally. And so, presently, did end that lovely day of quiet speech and
togetherness; and the Maid did prepare me for my slumber, and she then
to lie anigh to me, and her head to rest gentle beside me, so that her
pretty face did be near unto my breast upon the right side; and she to
give me at the first a loving and sober kiss that did be somewise to set
a guard upon her tenderness, and afterward did sleep content and gentle,
as that she did be in the same moment a child and a woman. And I also to come unto slumbering; yet did know vaguely how that Mine
Own did rise a little upon her elbow, this time and that, and look very
loving into my face, that she have assurance of my comfort and
well-being; and once I did waken, proper, and lookt at her, and she then
to kiss me gentle upon mine eyelids, and bid me to sleep; and so did
come herself unto her sweet slumber. Now when that I did come to my
proper wakening, I to hear the fizzing of the water, and to know that
the Maid did be risen a good while, and had made her toilets, as I
perceived in a moment, when that she came unto me; for her hair did be
in a lovely cloud upon her shoulders, all combed and made ready against
my waking; and she to have bathed, as I supposed, in some warm pool that
did be among the bushes upon the island; and she now to slip her
foot-gear, that her feet be bare unto me, as I did love, and to stand a
moment, and her eyes to twinkle gently. And I lookt at her with love and
honour in mine eyes, as you shall know, and she to have dancing of sweet
pleasure in her heart, that I so to look upon her with holiness and with
natural love, and surely the last doth be unnatural if that it do lack
the first; but my love did burn upward out of my being, so that the
flame of my spirit did light the fires of my heart, and my Reason to add
coals unto that fire that hath lived for ever, and doth be as that it
shall be never quenched. And Mine Own in a moment did kneel beside me, and, truly, someways in
her deep intenseness unto me; for our love did make all the world holy,
and she to be both uplifted and as that she must give all the humbleness
of her heart unto the greatness of my love; and this she to feel, and
her deep and utter love, to make it as that she did be all a passion of
humbleness unto me, so that in her soul I did rise in that moment upon
the wings of my love, and to seem that I did be all the world and all
time and all place and all that ever she did need unto her. And she put out her arms to me, and her eyes did shine with those tears
that do never be shed; and lo! in a moment, she did be upon my heart,
and we two to be husht together in content; for our need did be in the
other. And truly, where there do be two together with love, there doth
be neither lack nor need; but eternal fulfilment. And in verity this to be my Hope for that which doth come
Afterward--that all doth be leading unto so glad a joy as this, and that
all pain and grief and all that doth make the shaping of Life, doth be
but a process by which we be eternally perfected from living unto
living, unto each Fulfilment that doth be but the doorway unto greater
Fulfilment in the Beloved. And, presently, Mine Own Maid did loose herself gentle from me, and
washt me and tended me; and very husht and tender, and something
down-ridded of her dear and lovely eyes. And we then to eat and to drink together, and joy so great and quiet did
be upon us, that it did be as that we had gone into an eternity of peace
and an utter content. And surely, as the thought did stir in me, it did
be of beauty that we did be both of us true unto the other, in that
life, and I never to have kist a maid, until that I kist Mine Own, and
she to have been likewise, and to have fended all men from her, because
that they did be Strangers unto her inwardness, and so we two to be so
utter together, both in that our spirits did be knit, being each the
complement of the other, and because that we had no secret pains of
remembered things, to set any apartness between our hearts. And in verity, I to think back then upon my jealousies, that I have
told, and to know that Mine Own did never to have given herself lightly
to any, neither to have taken lightly; and her spirit to have been alway
mine through all the Everlasting; and mayhap this to be how all Peoples
shall come to be in the length of time, only that to us had come the
great wonder that we did early meet; though this also to bring that
utter pain, which doth seem to slay, when that once you have known the
Beloved, and to be parted. And so I to think, and did presently ponder with a great and strange
pity upon they that did not yet have met the Beloved, and they mayhap
not to have kept all for the Beloved; but to have been light with that
which doth be the Treasure, because that Love had not come to show them
that they did unknowingly squander the strange and holy glory which doth
be the possession of they that shall come to the Beloved and say, All
that is thine have I kept for thee. And the Beloved to know and to have
peace in the remembering. But what doth be the peculiar sorrow of they
that have gone over-lightly, when that they shall meet the Beloved; for
then shall there be a constant and inward regret, as a thorn in the
heart, that they not to have observed alway that holy care of all which
doth pertain unto love; and they nigh to moan in the spirit, _if they
had but known, if they had but known._ Yet, in the end, of their pain,
shall they grow unto all loveliness, if that now they have truly come
upon Love, and to live with Love; for this to be the especial glory of
love, that it doth make unto all Sweetness and Greatness, and doth be a
fire burning all Littleness, so that did all in this world to have met
The Beloved, then did Wantonness be dead, and there to grow Gladness and
Charity, dancing in the years.