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Benson, Robert Hugh, 1871-1914

"The Necromancers"

There stirred an air about them which
was as wine to the soul, a coolness and clearness that was beyond
thought, in a radiance that shone through all that was bathed within
it, as sunlight that filtered through water. She perceived then that
the experience had been an initiation for them both, that here they
stood, one by the other, each transparent to the other, or, at least,
he transparent to her; and she wondered, not whether he would see it
as she did, for of that she was confident, but when. For this space of
silence she perceived him through and through, and understood that
perception was everything. She saw the flaws in him as plainly as in
herself, the cracks in the crystal; yet these did not matter, for the
crystal was crystal....
So she waited, confident, until he should understand it too.
"But that is only one fraction of what is in my mind--" He broke off.
Then for the first time since she had opened her eyes just now her
heart began to beat. That which had lain hidden for so long--that
which she had crushed down under stone and seal and bidden lie
still--yet that which had held her resolute, all unknown to herself,
through the night that was gone--once more asserted itself and waited
for liberation.


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