The Greater Joy; A Romance (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 Excerpt: ... exquisitely romantic fashion. He had never believed it possible, owing to her modesty, which was always to him her most salient trait, which never deserted her even in the moments of most profound intoxication, of supreme physical exaltation, that she would develop her playfulness beyond the coy, demure, Quaker-like raillery which had so charmed him on the first Sunday spent together in the deserted village. He had not believed that the peculiar genius required for this was hers. It filled him with a sense of triumph, of exultation greater than any success his intellectual attainments had ever brought him, to realize that he had brought about this subtle change, that his brain, stimulating hers, had achieved this transformation. Why could he not abandon himself completely to the delicious mood in which he had found his beloved? How different was her subjugation to that of those women who had gone before Not a mere fleeting subjugation this, enduring only for the brief span of pleasure, but a subjugation in which her heart, her brain, her entire being participated and acquiesced. He likened himself to a man who, having heard a symphony by Beethoven, or an overture by Wagner, rendered only through the meagre vehicle of the pianoforte, knowing no other instrument, not guessing even that other instruments exist, is suddenly ravished by hearing the complete orchestral score, the blending of the various voices of the orchestra, the sombre richness of the 'cello, the pathos of the violin, the sweetness of the flute, the plaintiveness of the oboe, the joyousness of the trombone. His desire for her became almost insufferable. He closed his eyes, and a deep sigh, wrenched from his heart, broke from his lips. He felt her cool fingers upon his eye-lids. He pulled her...