Speedily, dutifully, she cast off her clothes and left all of her jewelry piled up here at the entry, and even threw away her jeweled slippers, so that she could walk utterly naked in the depths of the hidden garden.
The night air felt good on her skin. The moonlight caressed her fine limbs, her resplendent body. She followed the sound of water—for it was so quiet here that the merest ripple in any of the ponds made a noise as clear as day.
When she came to a pond so still and clear that its surface was like black glass, she dipped one well-turned foot into it. Finding it achingly soothing, she slipped in up to her calves and then, daring to break the crystalline stillness of the night, she splashed the waters over herself, delighting in wetness.
Sinking further into the blue-black dept
