You don't want a snake or a common serpent, you want a Python.' I wanted bloom and mystery, a woman shifting like the light with evening and night and dawn, and sudden fire.

Janet was bald to the heart inhabiting me then, as if quite shaven.

She could speak her affectionate mind as plain as print, and it was dull print facing me, not the arches of the sunset.

Julia had only to lisp, 'my husband,' to startle and agitate me beyond expression.

She said simple things--'I slept well last night,' or 'I dreamed,' or 'I shivered,' and plunged me headlong down impenetrable forests.