Daphne: An Autumn PastoralSherwood, Margaret Pollock
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Daphne: An Autumn Pastoral
Sherwood, Margaret Pollock
Italy -- Fiction
Daphne had been unable to sleep, for sleeplessness had become a habit
during the past week. Whether she was too happy or too unhappy she
could not tell: she only knew that she was restless and smothering for
air and space. Hastily dressing, she had stolen on tiptoe down the
broad stairway by the running water and out into the night, carrying a
tiny Greek lamp with a single flame, clear, as only the flame of olive
oil can be. She had put the lamp down in the doorway, and it was
burning there now, a beacon to guide her footsteps when she wanted to
return. Meanwhile, the air was cool on throat and forehead and on her
open palms: she had no wish to go in.
Here was a fountain whose jets of water, blown high from the mouths of
merry dolphins, fell in spray in a great stone basin where mermaids
waited for the shower to touch bare shoulders and bended heads. The
murmur of the water, mingled with the murmur of unseen live things, and
the melody of night touched the girl's discordant thoughts to music.
Of what avail, after all, was her fierce struggle for duty? Here were
soft shadows, and great spaces, and friendly stars.
Of course her lover-god, Apollo, was gone. She had known the other day
when she left him on the hill that she would not see him again, for the
look of his face had told her that. Of course, it was better so. Now,
everything would go on as had been intended. Anna would come home;
after this visit was over, there would be New York again, and Eustace.
Yes, she was brave to share his duty with him, and the years would not
be long. And always these autumn days would be shining through the
dark hours of her life, these perfect days of sunshine without shadow.
Of their experiences she need not even tell, for she was not sure that
it had actually been real. She would keep it as a sacred memory that
was half a dream.
She was walking now by the rows of tall chrysanthemums, and she reached
out her fingers to touch them, for she could almost feel their deep
yellow through her finger-tips. It was like taking counsel of them,
and they, like all nature, were wise. Cypress and acacia and palm
stood about like strong comforters; help came from the tangled vines
upon the garden wall, from the matted periwinkle on the ground at her
feet, and the sweet late roses blossoming in the dark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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