As I opened the door of my room I could still see the imprint of Justine's foot in the wet sand. Melissa was reading, and looking up at me she said with characteristic calm foreknowledge: 'Some¬thing has happened - what is it?' I could not tell her since I did not myself know. I took her face in my hands and examined it silently, with a care and ( Read more... )

We lay for a long time, side by side in our wet bathing costumes to take the last pale rays of the sun upon our skins in the delicious evening coolness. I lay with half-shut eyes while Justine (how clearly I see her!) was up on one elbow, shading her eyes with the palm of one hand and watching my face. Whenever I was talking she had the habit of ( Read more... )

All this I have come to regard as a sort of overture to that first real meeting face to face, when such understanding as we had enjoyed until then - a gaiety and friendship founded in tastes which were common to the three of us - disintegrated into some¬thing which was not love - how could it have been? - but into a sort of mental possession in ( Read more... )