It was a bright, hot midday in summer, and the heavy glances of the
flaming Dragon fell on the River Skorodyen. The water, the light, and
the summer beamed and were glad; they beamed because of the sunlight
that filled the immense space, they were glad because of the wind that
blew from some far land, because of the many birds, because of the two
nude maidens.

Two sisters, Elisaveta and Elena, were bathing in the River Skorodyen.
And the sun and the water were gay, because the two maidens were
beautiful and were naked. And the two girls felt also gay and cool,
and they wanted to scamper and to laugh, to chatter and to jest. They
were talking about a man who had aroused their curiosity.

They were the daughters of a rich proprietor. The place where they
bathed adjoined the spacious old garden of their estate. Perhaps they
enjoyed their bathing because they felt themselves the mistresses of
these fast-flowing waters and of the sand-shoals under their agile
feet. And they swam about and laughed in this river with the assurance
and freedom of princesses born to rule. Few know the boundaries of
their kingdom--but fortunate are they who know what they possess and
exercise their sway.

They swam up and down and across the river, and tried to outswim and
outdive one another. Their bodies, immersed in the water, would have
presented an entrancing sight to any one who might have looked down
upon them from the bench in the garden on the high bank and watched
the exquisite play of their muscles under their thin elastic skin.
Pink tones lost themselves in the skin-yellow pearl of their bodies.
But pink triumphed in their faces, and in those parts of the body most