THE WAVES 
spine is soft like wax near the flame of the candle. I dream; 
I dream.” 
“1 have won the game,” said Jinny. “ Now it is your 
turn. I must throw myself on the ground and pant. 1am 
out of breath with running, with triumph. Everything in 
my body seems thinned out with running and triumph. 
My blood must be bright red, whipped up, slapping against 
my ribs. My soles tingle, as if wire rings opened and 
shut in my feet. I see every blade of grass very clear. But 
the pulse drums so in my forehead, behind my eyes, that 
everything dances—the net, the grass; your faces Jeap like 
butterflies ; the trees seem to jump up and down. There is 
nothing staid, nothing settled, in this universe. All is 
rippling, all is dancing ; all is quickness and triumph. Only, 
when I have lain alone on the hard ground, watching you 
play your game, I begin to feel the wish to be singled out; 
to be summoned, to be called away by one person who comes 
to find me, who is attracted towards me, who cannot keep 
himself from me, but comes to where I sit on my gilt chair, 
with my frock billowing round me like a flower. And 
withdrawing into an alcove, sitting alone on a balcony we 
talk together. 
“ Now the tide sinks. Now the trees come to earth; the 
brisk waves that slap my ribs rock more gently, and my 
heart rides at anchor, like a sailing-boat whose sails slide 
slowly down on to the white deck. The game is over. 
We must go to tea now.” 
“ The boasting boys,” said Louis, “ have gone now in a 
vast team to play cricket. They have driven off in their 
great brake, singing in chorus. All their heads turn 
simultaneously at the corner by the laurel bushes. Now 
they are boasting. Larpent’s brother played football for 
Oxford; Smith’s father made a century at Lords. Archie 
and Hugh; Parker and Dalton; Larpent and Smith; then 
again Archie and Hugh; Parker and Dalton; Larpent and 
22