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I stayed there for four nights

Again, I was delivered

This tiy and in dishabille, barely covered by a thin torn creaht from the very brothel, but this wasmy picture obviously, at a slances at me

I asked the tiht it was He didn't answer

"And so you're angry that I enjoyed it?" I asked

"I told you to lie still," he said

I lay back, cold all over, and hurt suddenly, lonely perhaps, and wanting like a child to hide in his arms

Morning ca was a glea posture cast down on a riverbank, a fawn of sorts, over which a tall shepherd, the Master himself, in priestly robes stood watch The woods around us were thick and richly realized with the peeling tree trunks and their clustered dusty leaves The water of the stream seemed wet to the touch, so clever was the realisuileless and lost in sleep, my mouth half-open in a natural way, my brow obviously troubled by uneasy dreams

I threw it on the floor, in a rage,to smear it

Why had he said nothing? Why did he force er atwhat he had told me? I wondered if the brothels had been a test of my innocence, and his admonitions to me to enjoy all of it had been lies

I sat at his desk, picked up his pen and scribbled a e to him

You are the Master You should know all things It's unsupportable to be Mastered by one who cannot do it Make clear the way, shepherd, or lay down your staff

The fact was, I rung out from the pleasure, from the drink, from the distortion of uidance and his kindness and his reassurance that I was his

But he was gone

I went out roa cards, deliberately enticing the pretty girls ere fair gaames of chance