THE VIRGIN
83
Yet Alice
is full of fear ; they question their love ,
and Love conquers .
The still
horror
creeps
silently
on , enveloping them in the shroud that man has woven
as the garment of love :
Since our pure
shame
unworthily destroys
The love of
all
she had
,
her girls and boys
,
Her home
,
their lives
:
and yet my whisper stirs
Into live flame
her passion
,
and deters
Her fear from spurning
all
the day's due joys
."
The pudibonderie
of
the English
would call this lust
.
Indeed
,
drunken
on
their own crapulous imagination
,
choked
by
their venomous vomit
,
they
cannot see the
divine form
of
Love
through
the mist
of
their steam
ing sensuality
.
For what reason did man
tie
woman
to
him
?
For what reason did he devise the horrors
of
indissoluble
marriage
?
And
the
answer
is
:
that
he
might
ever
have
at
least one
poor victim
to
sate his
vile carnalities
on
.
Lust and Indolence are the parents
of
Marriage
and Law
,
but not
even
the
menials
of
Freedom and Free Love
.
We clung still closer
,
till
the soul
ran through
Body
to
body
,
twined like sunny
snakes
,
Sinlessly knowing
we were man and wife.2
Alice
,
still
fearful
,
foresees
the
end
;
such
love
as
theirs
is
too supernal
to
be
platonic
;
she flies
in
vain
;
for she has
to
console her sad
lover with
the
truth
.
The storm
-
clouds gather
on
the twenty
-
fifth day
:
Mouth unto
mouth
!
O
fairest
!
mutely
lying
,
Fire lambent
laid
on
water
,
-0
!
the pain
!
Kiss
me
,
O
heart
,
as
if
we both were dying
!
|
Alice
,
an
Adultery
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
73
.
2
lbid
.