A vivid flash of lightning
showed him her face as they stood for an instant leaning against each
other, his arm encircling her. Ah, what deep feeling in that
countenance, once so passionless; what a new light in those eyes. It was
like the awakening of a long dormant soul.
He took the helm from the captain and stood steering the vessel, and
calling out his orders, with Lesbia close beside him, holding her with
his disengaged arm, drawing her near him as the vessel pitched
violently, drawing her nearer still when they shipped a sea, and a great
fountain of spray enfolded them both in a dense cloud of salt water.
The thunder roared and rattled, as if it began and ended close beside
them. Forked lightnings zigzagged amidst the rigging. Sheet lightning
enwrapped those two in a luminous atmosphere, revealing faces that were
pale with passion, lips that trembled with emotion. There were but scant
opportunity for speech, and neither of these two felt the need of words.
To be together, bound nearer to each other than they had ever been yet,
than they might ever be again, in the midst of thunder and lightning and
dense clouds of spray.
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