The streaks of scarlet in the white waste of skin soon died cleanly
into mere bands of pink, and Igraine had little trouble from her
wounds, thanks to the great Gildas. In fact, she was in bed but three
days, while Lilith played nurse, chatted and sang to her, or leant at
the open window to tell her of those who passed in the street. Master
Gildas came and went morning and evening with the prodigious regularity
of the sun. The girls aped him behind his back, and Igraine, with some
ingratitude to science, made Lilith empty the ruby-coloured physic
out of the window. It happened to spatter a lean booby of a man as
he passed, who, looking up, flattered himself that Lilith must have
sprinkled him with scented water by way of showing her affection. So
much for Gildas's rose-water and flowers of dill.
The man of physic marched each day like a god into Gorlois's house to
tell how the Lady Igraine fared at his hands. Such patronage was worth
much to Gildas, and knowing how the wind blew, he puffed religiously
upon the new-kindled fire. The girl's glamour had caught up Gorlois in
a golden net. He had loved to look upon her and to dream, but now the
perfume of her hair, the warm softness of her body, the very odour of
her shed and scarlet blood were memories in him that would not fade.
One evening a posy of flowers came tumbling in at Igraine's window.
Lilith looked out, and saw Gorlois.
"For the Lady Igraine," were his words.
Lilith smiled down, and ventured to tell him that Igraine was much
beholden to his courtesy and succour, and would thank him with her own
lips when well of her wounds. She took the flowers to Igraine, who was
listening in bed in the twilight.
"Shall I throw a flower back?" asked the girl.
"It would be courteous."
Lilith did so. The bloom struck Gorlois on the mouth like a blown kiss.
The man put the thing in his bosom with a great smile, and went home to
spend some hours like a star-gazer in his garden, while his musicians
tuned their strings behind the bushes. At such a season Gorlois loved
sound and colour. The voices, sweetly melancholic, thrilled up into the
night--
"Her head is of brighter gold than the broom-flower,
Her breast like foam under her green tunic;
Like a summer sky at night are her glances;
Her fingers are as wood anemones in a daze of dew;
Of her lips,--who shall tell!
The gates of a sunset
Where love dies.
Her limbs are like May-blossoms
Bedded on a green couch:
The night sighs for her,
And for the touch of her hand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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