Produced by Suzanne Shell, Maria Khomenko and PG Distributed Proofreaders
1912
"This to be Love, that your spirit to live in a natural holiness withthe Beloved, and your bodies to be a sweet and natural delight thatshall be never lost of a lovely mystery…. And shame to be unborn, andall things to go wholesome and proper, out of an utter greatness ofunderstanding; and the Man to be an Hero and a Child before the Woman;and the Woman to be an Holy Light of the Spirit and an Utter Companionand in the same time a glad Possession unto the Man…. And this doth beHuman Love…."
"…for this to be the especial glory of Love, that it doth make untoall Sweetness and Greatness, and doth be a fire burning all Littleness;so that did all in this world to have met The Beloved, then didWantonness be dead, and there to grow Gladness and Charity, dancing inthe years."
"And I cannot touch her face
And I cannot touch her hair,
And I kneel to empty shadows—
Just memories of her grace;
And her voice sings in the winds
And in the sobs of dawn
And among the flowers at night
And from the brooks at sunrise
And from the sea at sunset,
And I answer with vain callings …"
It was the Joy of the Sunset that brought us to speech. I was gone along way from my house, walking lonely-wise, and stopping often that Iview the piling upward of the Battlements of Evening, and to feel thedear and strange gathering of the Dusk come over all the world about me.
The last time that I paused, I was truly lost in a solemn joy of theGlory of the Coming Night; and maybe I laughed a little in my throat,standing there alone in the midst of the Dusk upon the World. And, lo!my content was answered out of the trees that bounded the country roadupon my right; and it was so as that some one had said: "And thou also!"in glad understanding, that I laughed again a little in my throat; asthough I had only a half-believing that any true human did answer mylaugh; but rather some sweet Delusion or Spirit that was tuned to mymood.
But she spoke and called me by my name; and when I had gone to the sideof the road, that I should see her somewhat, and discover whether I knewher, I saw that she was surely that lady, who for her beauty was knownthrough all of that sweet County of Kent as Lady Mirdath the Beautiful;and a near neighbour to me; for the Estates of her Guardian aboundedupon mine.
Yet, until that time, I had never met her; for I had been so oft andlong abroad; and so much given to my Studies and my Exercises when athome, that I had no further Knowledge of her than Rumour gave to me oddtime; and for the rest, I was well content; for as I have given hint, mybooks held me, and likewise my Exercises; for I was always an athlete,and never met the man so quick or so strong as I did be; save in somefiction of a tale or in the mouth of a boaster.
Now, I stood instantly with my hat in my hand; and answered her gentlebantering so well as I might, the while that I peered intent andwondering at her through the gloom; for truly Rumour had told no tale toequal the beauty of this strange maid; who now stood jesting with sosweet a spirit, and claiming kinship of Cousinhood with me, as wastruth, now that I did wake to think.