Sulamith; A Romance of Antiquity

Excerpt: ...lovely smile of confusion, she says: "My mother's children made me the 116 keeper of the vineyard. But mine own vineyard have I not kept." But Solomon takes her little swarthy hand and presses it fervently to his lips. "Thou dost not regret this, Sulamith?" "O nay, my king, my beloved. I regret it not. Wert thou to arise this minute and go from me, and were I condemned never to see thee after, I would to the end of my life utter thy name with gratitude, Solomon!" "Tell me one thing else, Sulamith. Only, I beseech thee, speak the truth, my undefiled. Didst thou know who I am?" "Nay,-even now I know it not. Methought. But I am shamed to confess it. I fear thou wilt laugh at me. They tell, that here, upon Mount Beth-El-Khav, 117 pagan gods do oft wander. Many of them, it is said, are beautiful. And methought: art thou not Hor, the son of Osiris; or else some other god?" "Nay, I am but a king, beloved. But here, upon this spot, I kiss thy dear hand, scorched of the sun, and swear to thee that never yet-neither in the time of first love longings, nor in the days of my glory-has my heart flamed with such an insatiable desire as that which is awakened within me by thy mere smile, by the mere touch of thy flaming locks,-the mere curve of thy purple lips! Thou art comely as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains in the temple of Solomon! Thy caresses intoxicate me. Behold thy breasts-they are fragrant. Thy nipples are as wine!" 118 "O, yea,-gaze, gaze upon me, beloved. Thy eyes arouse me! O, what joy!-for thy desire is unto me,-me! Thy locks are scented. As a bundle of myrrh thou dost lie betwixt my breasts!" Time ceases its current and closes over them in a solar cycle. Their bed is the green; their roof is of cedars; and their walls are of cypresses. And the banner over their tent is love. 119 CHAPTER SEVEN 120 121 VII. T he king had a pool in his palace,-an octagonal, fresh pool of white marble. Steps of...