The light in one of the windows in a city house,
which a moment before was bright, presently went out. The silence grew
deeper, though sounds could be heard. The breakers dashed against the
rocks and fell back with a roar; long-legged gnats sang in our ears and
disappeared with a buzzing of their transparent wings, and the
indistinct voices of the children bathing at the foot of the ramparts
reached us, mingled with their laughter and screams.
Young boys came out of the water, and, stepping gingerly on the pebbles,
ran up the beach to dress. When they attempted to put on their shirts,
the moist linen clung to their wet shoulders and we could see their
white torsos wriggling with impatience, while their heads and arms
remained concealed and the sleeves flapped in the wind like flags.
A man with his wet hair falling straight around his neck, passed in
front of us. His dripping body shone. Drops trickled from his dark,
curly beard, and he shook his head so as to let the water run out of his
locks. His broad chest was parted by a stubby growth of hair that
extended between his powerful muscles. It heaved with the exertion of
swimming and imparted an even motion to his flat abdomen, which was as
smooth as ivory where it joined the hips.
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