see that it was a very tall, extremely slender woman,
wrapped in soft robes of white. She stepped along
the slender line of the gold bridge with grace unequalled.

From the water arose a shining mist, and behind the
advancing figure a wall of light outlined and rimmed her
in a setting of gold. As she neared the shore the
Harvester's blood began to race in his veins and his lips parted
in wonder. First she was like a slender birch trunk, then
she resembled a wild lily, and soon she was close enough
to prove that she was young and very lovely. Heavy
braids of dark hair rested on her head as a coronet. Her
forehead was low and white. Her eyes were wide-open
wells of darkness, her rounded cheeks faintly pink, and
her red lips smiling invitation. Her throat was long,
very white, and the hands that caught up the fleecy robe
around her were rose-coloured and slender. In a panic
the Harvester saw that the trailing robe swept the undulant
gold water, but was not wet; the feet that alternately
showed as she advanced were not purple with cold, but
warm with a pink glow.

She was coming straight toward him, wonderful,
alluring, lovely beyond any woman the Harvester ever
had seen. Straightway the fountains of twenty-six years'
repression overflowed in the breast of the man and all
his being ran toward her in a wave of desire. On she
came, and now her tender feet were on the white gravel.
When he could see clearly she was even more beautiful
than she had appeared at a distance. He opened his lips,