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Show Cf THE MAENAD IN THE CATARACT-283 sers and held diem before me. She repeated her comment about me being a naughty litde devil, which even now I do not fully comprehend, and widi a smile dangerously close to a leer, she swayed forward against me. Using some pretext or anodier, I rose as modesdy as possible to my feet; using no pretext whatsoever she lurched to her feet, in die process her gown slipping even further down her shoulders until her bosom was most immodesdy exposed - as exposed as a nursing modier, except bodi at once! If I recall widi accuracy, she was also as large and as brim-full as a nursing modier, and now widi a smile which was a leer, she advanced upon me. Holding my Levi Strauss blue denim trousers before me, I raised my other hand before her: "Madam," said I sternly, "please desist. I am an innocent youth come upon you quite by accident I saved your life from no ulterior motive whatsoever." "So? It is never too late to have an ulterior motive," she replied. "Please, Madam. You have already shattered my solace. I came into diese mountains solely in quest of die balm which flows from die gende breast of Modier Nature." Perhaps I chose my words unwisely; in any case, her face turned into a veritable mask of lust: "Sweet youth, / am Modier Nature!" she cried out, and flung wide her arms to receive me upon her breast. Naturally I backed off; she followed. I backed off faster, crouching modesdy to pick up my boots, and she smiled as if those boots were my undoing. O, that prophetic smile! Since my cautious retreat seemed only to fuel her fire, I turned to make a sudden break for freedom, which, as you can imagine, exposed my flank to her - nay, exposed bom flanks! At that sight she apparendy cast off all restraint and modesty, and pursued me with the speed of a she-bear attacking to save her cub. But, alas, she had not the pure motive with which modierhood blesses even a savage beast. I must confess that I could not fathom her inordinate desire to pursue and overtake me. Had her ordeal in the cataract driven her mad? Had her pause at die brink of the abyss acted upon her as an aphrodisiac (if you will permit a touch of Greek)? Did the water contain some substance which had driven her loco? One would have thought that die icy stream would have cooled her blood, but, in defiance of all laws of physics, it appeared to have had the opposite effect. In any case, it was clear to me mat something in her immediate experience, plus the exposure of my person, however unintended for amorous pur- |