Susan, all
unconscious, with her rich young body showing in faint curves under the
defining blanket, and her hair lying loose among the roots of the
lupine bush, was so devoid of that imperious quality that marked her
when awake, was so completely a tender feminine thing, with peaceful
eyelids and innocent lips, that it seemed a desecration to look upon
her in such a moment of abandonment. Love might transform her into
this--in her waking hours when her body and heart had yielded
themselves to their master.
David turned away. The sacred thought that some day he would be the
owner of this complex creation of flesh and spirit, so rich, so fine,
with depths unknown to his groping intelligence, made a rush of
supplication, a prayer to be worthy, rise in his heart. He looked at
the sunset through half-shut eyes, sending his desire up to that
unknown God, who, in these wild solitudes, seemed leaning down to
listen:
"Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."
The sun, falling to the horizon like a spinning copper disk, was as a
sign of promise and help. The beauty of the hour stretched into the
future.
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