CHAPTER IVIt was a wondrous world. He walked in halls of polished marble and looked out through colonnades across a bright blue sea. Gentle breezes carried flowers’ perfumes to him. Wine warmed his throat. Music rippled in faint, nostalgic waves.
Yet he knew no joy, for loneliness ached dull underneath his breastbone. First listless, then feverish, he wandered in and out among the columns, ever seeking. Servitors brought rare foods, sun-blushing fruits, to tempt his palate; and there were women who pressed themselves upon him, seducing him with eye and voice and touch.
But he brushed by; he would have none of them. He saw the blue sea as a wasteland. The wine turned bitter in his mouth.
Then, suddenly, she was there, a fairy figure far off amid the towering pillars. With a glad cry, he
